Thinking about buying a dac to use with the Eversolo and possibly the Nagra as well.
The Nagra is 20 years old now and despite that I’ve not heard anything digital to beat it at bakes, shows etc, I’m sure there must be something out there that can. The Eversolo is a fairly inexpensive streamer, so presumably could be improved sq wise with an outboard dac. So can I assume there’s dacs available that will enhance the sq of both?
Your thoughts and recos please gents I’d prefer to buy used in order to get better value. Say a max of £3k.
Am not sure much at that level is going to beat the Nagra on CD stuff generally. Tha time at Nick’s my Sony was just about beaten by the Auralic but the Nagra was still quite a way ahead.
May be worth trying some NOS/valve/R2R stuff just to see if you prefer it.
Jim you are welcome to borrow my Aavik dac. It’s over budget but if you just want to try something for a few weeks. Can bring to Pauls bake if you want to give it a go.
I tried so many dacs in my (at the time) fairly High end system of Luxman L509X and Harbeth SHL5+
matrix audio element I - £1200 - good neutral, very ESS, ultimately characterless but competent, assuming pure neutrality is your bag, the matrix dacs are very good in that segment.
auralic altair - £2000 ish? - grey and dull sounding
ps audio direct stream junior - £4000?? - couldn’t strike a balance between firmware that made it sound edgy as hell or one that made it sound boring
denafrips Pontus II - £1100? - decent and fun, but too soft and warm
CAD 1543 Mk2 - £££££££££ - amazing, but too expensive
chord TT and TT2 - £4000 ish - tonally ok but somehow fatiguing over long sessions, not involving.
Sorry for all the long pre-amble, but it’s important that the reader understands the context and the calibre of the things tried before it.
Which brings us to the 851N, now available online for £500 ish these days.
Well built, good to look at, lovely screen, and huge array of connectivity and features.
Sound wise, almost flawless to these ears. Musical without being warm, detailed without brightness. Texture, soundstage, bass control, imaging, all excellent and as good as any DAC I ever heard anywhere in my system.
A smooth, musical, balanced and highly competent performer. And for any reasonable sum of money, I don’t know why anyone would want any more.
Always had a negative view on chord for absolutely no reason.
I now have the little mojo dac and really like it,if only I could get all the inputs to work
Apart from all the hifi shows backinnaday when Chord kit always used to sound like strident, spitty, aggressive dogshit, especially paired with Wilson-Bensesch speakers? Did it for me, f’sure.
I’d prefer to buy used in order to get better value. Say a max of £3k.
