Need Your Expertise - Best Under $1k DAC With Warmth and Liquidity?

[TubeLover]

Asking for a good friend whose suddenly now very limited  listening space have caused a sudden need for this in a system he just put together. I honestly have no real experience with DAC's in this price range, but I know that many of you do.

 

Any recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

JC

[AudioDoctor]

I dont think he could beat this:

https://www.schiit.com/products/modi-multibit-2

[Tam Lin]

Audio Note Kit 1.2. There was one recently offered on eBay for $350. The DAC is very good out of the box and has plenty of room for improvement if you are handy. The mods I've done to mine, Duelund caps and 192K S/PDIF, were less than $280.

[davide256]

Soo… under $1k there will be compromise. If your friend likes acoustical music, broadway performances Denafrips Ares II will be very nice, mid range is sweet with authentic timbre, much preferred it over  Schiit Multibit Gungnir. Its trade off is the linear interpolation used to tame NOS treble will dull sparkle for cymbals at CD rate, have to spend more to improve with NOS DAC. As sample rate goes up treble improves with Ares 2

[firedog]

Cayin IDAC-6MK2

Let's you choose SS or tube output.

It's at the top of your range, but you can find it discounted on the net if you look.

[LowOrbit]

IFI DSD dacs are a good option for this sound signature.

[audiobomber]

Schiit Bifrost 2,

[57gold]

Spending more than $450 to $1K will not get you better sonics than this:

 

https://apos.audio/products/topping-e70-velvet-desktop-dac-digital-to-analog-convertor?variant=43549274833132&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj_ajBhCqARIsAA37s0wgLRRmFK9nquPS8qhRInSVLqkjmqlJh9fvaa59t8pWrabZBPF7RGEaAqrVEALw_wcB

 

Features DAC chips know for smoothness versus ESS versions.  Read one man's impression here, says one might need to spend 9X more to get better sound:

 

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/topping-e70-velvet-dac/