Best DAC under 1lac?

[reignofchaos]

Acoustically or using a DSP. DSP can be just a DSP program running on a PC.

This will only apply very basic frequency response fixes and there might be side effects of the same.

You can't fix complicated things like RT60 where room treatment is the only way. Also room treatment is not the pangea - there can still be room issues after treatment/dsp.

 

[lithiumnk]

RME ADI 2 DAC FS
Chord Qutest
These are out of my budget. May be i need to look in used one.

Hi
I've AD1862 r2rnos dac with salas LPSU & nihitila input coax board for sale made by Somanna (BLR). I've posted in local groups only. I was planning to post on HFV. Check DM.

 

[amit11]

I am looking to know best dac under 1lac. Need your suggestions.

In my opinion Chord Qutest.

It is a professional grade audiophile DAC.
And it does not have any character of its own. Meaning you won't wind find any artifacts highlighting its sound towards x, y or z.

Due to this you will keep it long term and will not feel the itch to change. This i think is the most important quality of any DAC.

 

[reignofchaos]

In my opinion Chord Qutest.

It is a professional grade audiophile DAC.
And it does not have any character of its own. Meaning you won't wind find any artifacts highlighting its sound towards x, y or z.

Due to this you will keep it long term and will not feel the itch to change. This i think is the most important quality of any DAC.

IMHO the qutest is horrible. It has an extremely shouty and "look at me" character. It gives me listening fatigue almost immediately. IMHO, Chord has two good dacs - the mojo 2 at the bottom and the Dave at the top. Rest are severely lacking in refinement.

If you want to hear what a good studio dac sounds like, listen to a prism sound device.

 

[sidvee]

In my opinion Chord Qutest.

It is a professional grade audiophile DAC.
And it does not have any character of its own. Meaning you won't wind find any artifacts highlighting its sound towards x, y or z.

Due to this you will keep it long term and will not feel the itch to change. This i think is the most important quality of any DAC.

Yes I agree, I owned 3 dacs from Chord, and I liked the qutest the best in terms of vfm. To the OP - you should also look at some of the AKM chip based DAC's from Chinese mfrs. such as SMSL and Topping. SQ wise they sound excellent.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[amit11]

IMHO the qutest is horrible. It has an extremely shouty and "look at me" character. It gives me listening fatigue almost immediately. IMHO, Chord has two good dacs - the mojo 2 at the bottom and the Dave at the top. Rest are severely lacking in refinement.

If you want to hear what a good studio dac sounds like, listen to a prism sound device.

Well, when i had purchased it, i was disappointed and had buyers remorse to be honest. I had the feeling that i made a wrong decision. I also had posted a negative review of this DAC (bcos i had only the first ten days to post review)

Then i had read somewhere "have patience".

It was a bumpy roller coaster ride for full 3-4 months with no hope.

Then the DAC finally settled down. And i realized the value of "have patience".

 

[CKumar]

I have been using chord mojo on and off .
Always felt it's wonderful dac for the price.
Once you start listening other dacs, you will realise and wonder, this little dac weights quite a puch wrt price to performance.
Not the first hand user of qutest, but I feel it must be a leap forward.

 

[reignofchaos]

Well, when i had purchased it, i was disappointed and had buyers remorse to be honest. I had the feeling that i made a wrong decision. I also had posted a negative review of this DAC (bcos i had only the first ten days to post review)

Then i had read somewhere "have patience".

It was a bumpy roller coaster ride for full 3-4 months with no hope.

Then the DAC finally settled down. And i realized the value of "have patience".

This.was a used, well burnt in device and it was still way too shouty for me. Maybe your ears got adjusted to the sound after a few months.

 

[Pez]

I have been using chord mojo on and off .
Always felt it's wonderful dac for the price.
Once you start listening other dacs, you will realise and wonder, this little dac weights quite a puch wrt price to performance.
Not the first hand user of qutest, but I feel it must be a leap forward.

For first few months, i thought my AVR dac or topping E 50 was better. But after few months it started to show what is "The Qutest" . Yesterday I was listening to one of the pink Floyd song, there was a guitar string for which I heard 10 echos gradually fading in dark. Which I haven't heard more than twice earlier in my system. I really started to like Qutest . Not too soft or sharp, clear tone, instruments separation is good. Very nice tone decay and good soundstage.

Well, when i had purchased it, i was disappointed and had buyers remorse to be honest. I had the feeling that i made a wrong decision. I also had posted a negative review of this DAC (bcos i had only the first ten days to post review)

Then i had read somewhere "have patience".

It was a bumpy roller coaster ride for full 3-4 months with no hope.

Then the DAC finally settled down. And i realized the value of "have patience".

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Yesterday I was listening to one of the pink Floyd song, there was a guitar string for which I heard 10 echos gradually fading in dark.

Can you please tell which song and passage (time stamp)? I am curious to check the same on my system. Thanks.

 

[fLUX]

Had the Chord Hugo for a short while. It had a very forward presentation with vocals being a little lean & top end a little edgy. The layering , imaging & bass were positives for me but the overall signature was not something I preferred

 

[Pez]

Can you please tell which song and passage (time stamp)? I am curious to check the same on my system. Thanks.

This has some beautiful moments in overall song - Roger Walters - Time.
Soft song.

Also listen to Roger Walters = Us + Then, live in Amsterdam version. Beautiful songs of Pink Floyd - Time, Breathe, last refuge, wish you were here, Dogs. Overall very good album. Available in Qobuz, Amazon, YouTube.

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

I for the time being upgraded to Chord Qutest dac from my already nice budget dac Topping D90MQA. I also purchased Farad super 3 power supply for the qutest dac and to me the noise floor has been greatly reduced producing very nice black background music with grater separation of instruments alongside also producing fine details in the music. Overall I was very much impressed with sound quality.

 

[EswarReddy]

I for the time being upgraded to Chord Qutest dac from my already nice budget dac Topping D90MQA. I also purchased Farad super 3 power supply for the qutest dac and to me the noise floor has been greatly reduced producing very nice black background music with grater separation of instruments alongside also producing fine details in the music. Overall I was very much impressed with sound quality.

How much you.paid for Chord Qutest dac?

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

How much you.paid for Chord Qutest dac?

I got it for 80K from a forum member who purchased it from Headphone zone in October 2023 with free Qutest Stand. I didn't use the stand and sold it for Rs 9800.

 

[EswarReddy]

I got it for 80K from a forum member who purchased it from Headphone zone in October 2023 with free Qutest Stand. I didn't use the stand and sold it for Rs 9800.

This is dac akm or ess or r2r dac? Sorry i dont have much knowledge

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

This is dac akm or ess or r2r dac? Sorry i dont have much knowledge

Chord Qutest is based on Chord's award-winning proprietary FPGA technology.

 

[EswarReddy]

Chord Qutest is based on Chord's award-winning proprietary FPGA technology.

Did you try Gustard R26 DAC ?

 

[MaSh]

Picked up a Topping E70V recently and mighty impressed with it.

MaSh

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

Did you try Gustard R26 DAC ?

I haven't tried it.