HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I have had a Rega dac for a few years now since getting rid of my Naim cd player. It is the original Rega and I am pretty happy with the way it sounds. I do think it tends to get a bit lets say confused on complex busy music and maybe it's rendition of finner detail cymbal and hihat work for instance a bit harsh and lacking in texture and well detail.
The new delta sigma dacs from China seem to be well liked but there are also a few r2r ladder type dacs on the market that seem interesting. Anybody any opinion on how the Denafrips , Schiit and Metrum dacs stack up against the delta sigmas. I am only interested in the dac capability. I dont have any need for extras e.g. headphone amps, pre amps or wifi/ bluetooth.
Will r2r give me better sounding music than my old Rega.

I’d go for a Topping D30. You can pick a lightly used one up for about £70, it’s on a completely different level to the Rega DAC.

I’d take a D30 over the Schiit any day. Much better.

If you have more expensive tastes, the D50s is great, as is the D90. The D90MQA is great if you want to stream Tidal or Qobuz,

I am a fan of the Topping D30 as well. The sound is excellent for such a low price.

Slinger has experience with SMSL and other ChiFi DAC's that are also well-regarded.

Personally I like the sheer musicality of a NOS DAC and would wholeheartedly recommend the TeraDak V4.5 Chameleon (about £300 from AliExpress) as the best-sounding DAC I have yet to hear. Although its reliance on 'old tech' with 16 TDA1543 chips means that it is limited to a 24bit 96KHz maximum and has no DSD. The character is open with an almost valve-like warmth and no digital edginess. Detail, imaging, bass depth and dynamics are all superb. I've had this DAC for a while now and never caught it sounding muddled, harsh or confused on any sort of music.

16 x TDA1543

I dare not buy one. I haven't room for another 16 power supplies

On the face of it, there's no reason why a cheap and simple DAC, like the Toppings, can't sound as good as anything out there. Regardless of price.

Less is more.

All you need, in theory, is a good DAC chip - which doesn't cost much and a good, or non-existant analog section. With an overspecced for the job it has to do power supply.

Teradak Chameleon
2 boxes, one of which is a 'chunky' PSU.

I liked the Chord 2Qute for clarity and separation. Around £400 secondhand. The Qutest is very good, too, but expensive.

AKM based dacs seem reliably smooth but not quite such good separation - I've had Schiit Bifrost, RME ADI-2, Grace SDAC.

ESS based dacs are somewhere between. I'm using an SMSL S8 indoors at the moment and that matches very well with NVA amps and Cube 1s. I paid £70 secondhand.

I also had a Metrum Amethyst for a couple of years. Very even handed and easy to listen to but, again, I think expensive and not many around secondhand.

I only heard the original Rega DAC once - and I thought it was a tiny bit clunky and splashy. The £80 Grace DAC should beat it, in my experience.

Not heard the Topping but everyone seems delighted with it at the price.

YMMV

I use a little dot Dac1
Got it second hand via eBay- only ever had Beresford before that- I find it has consistent sq on each input
Prices new are £400 inc post

I have had a Qutest for nearly three years. It is very good but did not blow away the Mojo (since used exclusively for headphone use) at a third the price. What took the Qutest to a different level, to these ears in my system, was the addition of the Mscaler. After having one on loan I found I could not be without it and the credit card took a battering. To my knowledge the Qutest is the cheapest DAC with dual BNC inputs required to get the maximum from the Mscaler. I have found the other features on the minamilist Qutest to be very useful, adjustable voltage output and subtle filters.

Chunk McDaniel wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 8:00 am I have had a Rega dac for a few years now since getting rid of my Naim cd player. It is the original Rega and I am pretty happy with the way it sounds. I do think it tends to get a bit lets say confused on complex busy music and maybe it's rendition of finner detail cymbal and hihat work for instance a bit harsh and lacking in texture and well detail.
The new delta sigma dacs from China seem to be well liked but there are also a few r2r ladder type dacs on the market that seem interesting. Anybody any opinion on how the Denafrips , Schiit and Metrum dacs stack up against the delta sigmas. I am only interested in the dac capability. I dont have any need for extras e.g. headphone amps, pre amps or wifi/ bluetooth.
Will r2r give me better sounding music than my old Rega.

How much do you plan to spend?