How Many DACs Have You Owned?

[Sal1950]

My first CD player was a Magnavox FD1040. I think that was like a 3rd gen CD player when the generations were short lived. I basically said when CD players hit $200 I would buy one (they were over a grand when I said that) This one was on sale for 198.98 a year or or 15 months later. My favorite record outlet had like 100 CD titles total at the time. One year later the large record store was half LP and half CD. CDs grew explosively early on.

Very similar path here. Jumped on the CD train with a Magnavox CDB 560, another of the first $200 players around 1987. Ran that for a some time till I got the JVC XL-Z1050TN, one of the very high quality (expensive) Japanese players of the day. It was built like a tank and heavy as a amp, a really great CD player. That lasted till I started to convert to a Linux based hard drive server. A couple different AV heads served DAC duty till purchase of the Emo DC-1

 

[Frank Dernie]

I did start out with a complete CD player but the first separate DAC I bought was a Sony DAS-702ES in 1985 which I used for years, I still have it and it still works.
Next I got a Meridian 606 DAC and matching transport. I also had a Stax DAC-Talent. I PXed these for a Spectral Spectral SDR-2000 but often just used the DAC in my StellaDAT recorder. My final update pre-streaming and multiple file types was a Goldmund Mimesis 20, which I also still have.

Then I retired and had time and minor inclination to compare stuff, and much less spare cash.
I decided to retire the Stella and ended up with Metric Halo ULN2, then fell for a LIO8, which I hardly use.
I had at home for evaluation:-
A Linn Klimax (supposed to be very good and looked nicely made)
A Resolution Audio Cantata (purely based on spec and styling)
A Weiss DAC2 (basic good engineering from a pro company at non-ctazy price)
I compared to the Metric Halo used as a DAC and as a Firewire-AES converter into the Goldmund.

Whilst I could probably tell one from the other on very specific sounds, the mechanical sound of piano pedals being used was a notable one, I would not be confident to identify any blind. If anything the Cantata was a tad clearer on the pedal sounds, and I liked its styling best, so I bought it.
As it turned out soon after I came across the Devialet amplifier since my local dealer was one of the first to sell them, and after trying one for a couple of weeks 5 years ago I bought it, so all separate DACs have been redundant since.
I have a Chord Hugo for portable use which seems very good too.

 

[Burning Sounds]

My first standalone was an AA Dac-in-the box, then....

CA Dac Magic
Audiolab M-Dac
Benchmark DAC1 (2 used for biamping Magneplanar 2.5Rs)

2 More Dac 1s were added when I built the Linkwitz LX521.4s - Benchmark claimed running the dacs in parallel for multichannel was fine and I never heard anything to contradict that. If I remember correctly I think they took 10 at random from the production line and tested them for this purpose. All the Dac 1s were used and a reasonable price (about £350 each) because of the release of the Dac2 and much cheaper than buying a high quality 8 channel pro dac.

When I tired of the Dac clutter I bought my first ADDA an inexpensive M-Audio M-track eight. It was Ok, but the Benchmark's were considerably better.

I then gave in and auditioned a highquality 8 channel pro dac - a Prism Sound Titan and the USB version of the Mytek ADDA8x192. I also tried an Exasound E28.

I bought the Mytek, but would have been perfectly happy with the Prism Sound - both enabling me to use my analogue gear also.

Some of the Becnhmarks are still in use around the house, hooked up to Playstations etc

 

[watchnerd]

Some of the Becnhmarks are still in use around the house, hooked up to Playstations etc

For gaming or for SACD listening / Blu Ray watching?

 

[Burning Sounds]

The Dac 1 HDR for example has its digital inputs hooked up to a Squeezebox Touch and to the Playstation 3 which is primarily used for watching the BBC's iplayer content. The Samsung TV's analogue outputs are connected to the HDR because its digital output has a known problem that causes glitches when it switches from 1080i to 1080p which it does continually, causing nasty clicks. Not ideal soundwise but better than using the TV's speakers.