Speedloader79 Posted January 9 Posted January 9 (edited) Hello guys, I have narrowed down my search for a nice DAC, partnering with my Lumin U2 mini LPS, to the following: 1. Denafrips Venus II 15th. 2. Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE. Price wise they are almost the same. Speakers are Martin Logan Spire. Currently using Roon without any upsampling. Im looking for opinions from people that have actually heard both of them. Thanks in advance. BR Lars Edited January 9 by Speedloader79
chesebert Posted January 10 Posted January 10 There are better choices if you like musical, natural sound.
Speedloader79 Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 7 hours ago, chesebert said: There are better choices if you like musical, natural sound. Please elaborate
chesebert Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Sonic frontier sfd2 mk2, wadia 27, dangerous music convert2, new ontech dac07, emm labs dcc2, just to name a few.
muon* Posted January 10 Posted January 10 Gieseler Audio has his newest TDA1541A DAC, very highly regarded for natural musical sound.
Speedloader79 Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 Thanks for suggesting above products. Hopefully someone can chime in on the 2 DACs I mentioned?
chesebert Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I am not familiar with the two specific DACs mentioned, but neither the Terminator nor the May sounded particularly musical to me. I do not have high expectations for their lower-tier products.
Mitch92 Posted January 10 Posted January 10 I haven’t heard the 15th but I’ve heard the 12th and from my past listening between those two models I’d go the Venus. The 15th has brought improvements again so I’d go the current Denafrips Venus 15th but just be cautious of the long burn in times for the Venus. Another option within that same flavour would be the Laiv Harmony DAC, for sonics I’d have it up there with the May KYE and Terminator plus for almost half the cost. It’s kinda best of both worlds for sonics. My DAC of choice under 15k would be the T+A DAC 200, to my ears nothing can touch it until you climb to the Mola Mola or Chord Dave but even then I’d choose the DAC 200 over the Dave. The “Aqua la scala mkiii optologic” DAC has just been released and I’d been keen to see some reviews on that. another absolute gorgeous DAC for musicality that doesn’t get much attention would be the “Merason DAC1 MkII”. Bit more than the Venus as It’s about $12,500 aud but well worth a look. https://pt.audio/2024/01/05/merason-dac-1-mk-ii-review/ Don't get caught up on the sampling rates of DACs and chasing DSD over PCM, if it’s designed properly with good engineering 16/44 is plenty. 1 1
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