Any Input Appreciated - Your Thoughts On The Best $1500.00 (street price) DAC

[firedog]

On 3/16/2021 at 10:24 PM, 57gold said:

FWIW, and based upon the rather contentious AS thread on ASR, some would say it's not worth much or it is, the Okto Stereo has the highest score of all DACs tested on the boil it down to one performance number category.  Not sure what that number means other than ASR calc it based upon low distortion and dynamics, but I could be wrong about that as I don't understand all these tests, charts, graphs...  

 

 But even the nice folks at Stereophile, who do their own tests, charts and graphs, say it sound fine and state:  "Okto's dac8 Stereo performed supremely well on the test bench."  

The measurements, plus the subjective reviews from a trusted reviewer like Kal and a few others, would put the Okto high on my list, unless I was going for something in the 5 figure range. The model with the streamer is a good value and makes the system setup and use simple for someone who doesn't want to wade into the  weeds of audiophilia.