wadia 121 or wyred4sound dac2 or audio-gd 1.32

[vijwilso]

Need help on choosing a sabre based dacs. I have audio gd DAC which is very good for its price and slighlty on the warmer side which I choose to pair with my proacs. Now I am going with the spendors which are not as sparkling as proac . I need some DAC which is exciting , energetic and a tight base, and assume saber based should help.
-- headphone amplification is not important
--- should have a very good USB implementation as I will be using directly with PC. No expensive transport or additional adaptors
---- ability to connect to power amp would be a plus


Can you share your experience with above DACs. Also pls add more into the list . budget is around 75k

I am also open for used ones.

Sent from nexus 7

 

[john_k_antony]

Need help on choosing a sabre based dacs. I have audio gd DAC which is very good for its price and slighlty on the warmer side which I choose to pair with my proacs. Now I am going with the spendors which are not as sparkling as proac . I need some DAC which is exciting , energetic and a tight base, and assume saber based should help.
-- headphone amplification is not important
--- should have a very good USB implementation as I will be using directly with PC. No expensive transport or additional adaptors
---- ability to connect to power amp would be a plus


Can you share your experience with above DACs. Also pls add more into the list . budget is around 75k

I am also open for used ones.

Sent from nexus 7

Buddy,

I can offer you an home audition of my Oppo-105 . It has got everything that you need.

1. Sabre 32bit Reference DAC - ES9018.
2. USB input. Async with 24/192 kHz support. (Never used this yet)
3. Direct connection to power amp with in built volume control. I am actually running my Oppo-105 directly connected to my AP power amp till I finish my Pass B1 build .
4. Dedicated headphone amp (Never used this yet)

Only the price is tricky. If you can have someone hand carry the unit from US, you can get it with in your budget hyeah:

Thanks,
John.

 

[Santy]

I am sailing in the same boat I guess.
Looking for the best DAC with Sabre chip I can afford to buy.
I heard the peachtree Decco which was amazing.
I am seriously considering W4S DAC2 for myself.
But the landing price including customs comes close to 1.3L.
Actually I am crazy about it for one more reason that is HT bypass and built in preamp.
I would say go for it if you can manage the budget.

 

[BLASTO]

Since you are happy with naim/exposure sound, why not try the NAIM DAC-V1?

 

[asliarun]

Killerbrain, I would be interested to know how your upgrade turns out (I too have a WM8741 based Audio GD DAC).

I just noticed a DIY offering yesterday, and it looked very very good. I was tempted myself but don't want to upgrade so soon. Plus, I really needed a DAC and preamp (analog volume control - and which Audio-GD does an excellent job of).

Poseidon's Voice Sabre 32S dac

Then there's also the Twister Pear Buffalo 3 designs which are supposed to be very good, if well implemented.

 

[vijwilso]

Buddy,

I can offer you an home audition of my Oppo-105 . It has got everything that you need.

1. Sabre 32bit Reference DAC - ES9018.
2. USB input. Async with 24/192 kHz support. (Never used this yet)
3. Direct connection to power amp with in built volume control. I am actually running my Oppo-105 directly connected to my AP power amp till I finish my Pass B1 build .
4. Dedicated headphone amp (Never used this yet)

Only the price is tricky. If you can have someone hand carry the unit from US, you can get it with in your budget hyeah:

Thanks,
John.

Thanks John , We will meet soon

 

[vijwilso]

Since you are happy with naim/exposure sound, why not try the NAIM DAC-V1?

Some of the reviews suggest AudioGD 7.32 is more dynamic/energetic and got more PRAT compared to Naim Soures , so confused. I may or may not be true . Also Naim DACs are way too expensive for my budget

I am really happy with the over-all sound quality of the NFB3.33 , So tempted with 7.32 , but at the same time wanted to experiment with other brands with the good USB implementaion .

WADIA 121 seems to have XMOS based implementation , it seems to be good , but the power supply is a brick . And it has got noice issues. , not sure if the problem is applicable to the RCA outs

 

[vijwilso]

I am sailing in the same boat I guess.
Looking for the best DAC with Sabre chip I can afford to buy.
I heard the peachtree Decco which was amazing.
I am seriously considering W4S DAC2 for myself.
But the landing price including customs comes close to 1.3L.
Actually I am crazy about it for one more reason that is HT bypass and built in preamp.
I would say go for it if you can manage the budget.

I have onething about this W4S , some reviews suggest that the USB implementation is not good compared to WADIA . I would like to hear it from own FM who owns this DAC and compared other DACs

A good USB implementation gets in real good improvement .

 

[vijwilso]

Killerbrain, I would be interested to know how your upgrade turns out (I too have a WM8741 based Audio GD DAC).

I just noticed a DIY offering yesterday, and it looked very very good. I was tempted myself but don't want to upgrade so soon. Plus, I really needed a DAC and preamp (analog volume control - and which Audio-GD does an excellent job of).

Poseidon's Voice Sabre 32S dac

Then there's also the Twister Pear Buffalo 3 designs which are supposed to be very good, if well implemented.

Sure keep it updated . My Audio GD NFB3.33 has got analog like sound with no digital harshness when playing from optimized PC through ASIO+cPlay+USB. Hope you have already tried this .

 

[lucksin]

Since you are happy with naim/exposure sound, why not try the NAIM DAC-V1?

Blasto, there seems to be something wrong going with Naim these days. i am not able to get a clear indication as to who the actual importer is as there is a consensus that there is no importer in India ATM.

Moreover Naim V1 is offered at 1.52 L whereas in UK itself i am getting an offer of 950 pounds on fresh piece that is around 95000 and UK is suppose to be considered as a costly market for Audio equipment already. The premium is not worth it. infact same goes for NAD M51.

also i was wondering if there actually is day and night difference in quality compared to DAC's with good implementation in 75k budget.

i will be following this thread with keen interest.

 

[panditji]

Is the 950 pounds offer for a used one or a brand new one in the UK?

 

[lucksin]

Panditji : its new after VAT Refund