[Bingenito]

Glad that it worked out for you!

[bbybaudio]

Agree with Early B. As difficult as it was for me to fathom, even changing the power outlets (Oyaide) made significant difference as did the power cords, Anti Cable Ref 3. I am about to do a remodel and hope to add dedicated lines for audio gear. As for DAC I use the MP D2 MkIII Deluxe (Musical Paradise) with all the upgrades, and I swapped in very nice 7308 tubes from Brent Jesse.  Many on AC have commented on how this unit competes with DACs in the $3-$5k range. Two of our colleagues on AC and Spatial audio have moved up from the Musical Paradise unit to very expensive Lampizator DACs. For me the tubed MP unit is great! I had the X5s early on and was using a Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 DSD SE which I thought sounded pretty good. Then I saw all the comments on AC about the MP unit and bought one. It is a night and day difference. So much better in every way.

[deadhead]

I just upgraded my DAC to a Weiss 502.  This was one of those instances where the first 5 minutes it was in my system I knew it was the one.  The best way I can describe it is it get's out of the way and lets all the information flow.  The presentation is neutral but fast (it handles complex passages with ease) and coupled with the X3's the sound is the best I've heard in my listening room.  Currently I have it running directly into Don Sachs' Kootenay amp.  I'm having a 300b power amp built by Matt at Toolshed Amps.  He also makes a line stage to go with it but I'm going to live with the new amp for a bit before taking the plunge.

[Audiosaurusrex]

I’m using an RME-ADI-2 FS with a Teddy Pardo LPS. Using balanced out into my Octave V70 Class A driving my Spatial M3 Sapphires and I am completely satisfied. The RME has DSP but I don’t even have it active.

[Mr. Big]

It starts at the source of the signal. Turntables or a good well made CD player with a good DAC with NO oversampling, like the Marantz SA-10. It has Coax inputs, USB inputs, and iPhone inputs. Everything is in DSD mode in conversation. No streamer I've heard can duplicate its sound quality and my dealer has been trying to have me follow the crowd for 2 years, smile, I don't follow the crowd happy to say, my ears tell me what sounds correct. I grew up on vinyl (many hundreds in my collection) never looked back, and the reason is great sound quality from CDs if mastered with care just like vinyl, you cannot make a poor compressed recording better no matter the format, and compression is not just in the now, it started in the mid-1970s. Mud for sound and bass and the quality of vinyl went to pot also and any LP with RE on the back upper corner sounded like crap and today I won't even get into how turntables are set up by many dealers they neither have invested in the equipment and scopes like the old day when vinyl was selling at 100 million units per week. Streaming is #1, but that got zip to do with sound quality, its hip, and convenience. 

[Dieterle Tool]

^ +1

[Daryl Zero]

Forgot to say that when I tried to pay for the MHDT Havana through PayPal, PayPal put a hold on the payment because of the name "Havana."
It was extremely annoying and quite comical.

Should be a lesson to manufacturers. Don't name your product anything that could be considered controversial.

Do not name your amp "Putin Out Watts"

[JLM]

First make sure your loudspeakers are well suited for your room.  Being Spatials that means a big room that is well shaped and insulated.

Second make sure your power amp is highly synergistic with your loudspeakers.

Then find a DAC that plays nice with the rest.  Asking Clayton is probably the best advice.

[ElGatoRon]

My DAC is an Auralic Altair G1 streamer/DAC/preamp with 2TB of SSD storage.   I find it most pleasing on the smooth setting.  The actual chip is the ESS 9038Q2M.   I have M3 Sapphire speakers driven by a PrimaLuna EVO 300 integrated tube amp.   It has 42w and sounds great at comfortable listening levels with excellent bass and detail. I can also crank it but then I get some rattles and artifacts from my room.   I think any quality DAC will sound great with Spatial speakers with some fine tuning.  On the analog side it is most important to have a good cartridge and table with a quality phono stage matched to the cartridge

[consttraveler]

I like my Chord DAVE DAC with my X-5's and AGD Audion Mono Blocks.  Lots of detail without harshness.

[sarora9]

Bricasti M1SE (with streamer) with my X3's

[Mr. Big]

This thing about Digital sounds like analog, well both formats when we hear it is in analog, one from a needle going through groves the other bits of information through a DAC and then out of an analog stage. I grew upon Vinyl, I still enjoy my CD collection as much as Vinyl if not more. It will always be how the recording was mastered and how much compression is used. Vinyl if it could do full-range bass it is about 1 song on an LP side, which is why the RIAA standard was designed to give balance on an LP of highs to lows so more songs could fit on a 33-1/3 by the tracking needle.

Seems to be a new hot DAC weekly and many keep trying to find the right one that sounds good. Reading from others it is so complicated and the addition of components in the chain not to mention EQ software. I was told years ago to keep it simple, best circuit designs are simple ones. I get exhausted reading some of these posts with so many complications and multiplications to just play a recording.  Turntable, Preamp, amp and speakers, CD Player preamp, amp and speakers, both sound great to me. Spend money on your room, keep the chain simple, EQ'd music sounds that way, flat speakers sound that way. This is why say the Cleveland Orchestra sounds the way they do when recorded in Severance Hall, it is the sound of that hall that give them their own sound and you can hear it on any of their recordings. EQ that out you no longer have that sound. You have a flat boring sound with no personality you have stripped it all away. My friend has a Defrips Terminator 2 DAC and it sounds great, why keep searching? You have it right in front of you when the quality of the recording becomes prime #1 in one system and not the rest of the gear. You reached the audio heavens...smile

[Bingenito]

With my X4s I am running an MSB Premier with Powerbase and Network Renderer. Probably will be my last DAC unless I one day move to the Reference model.

Prior to the MSB I had a Denafrips Terminator II. That DAC did a really nice job and sounded great but the MSB sonic improvements are as you would expect for the difference in price. For those who believe (think, with no evidence if we are being technically correct) that anything that costs more than $5k just isn't worth is and it is diminishing returns... I strongly advise you to never insert a world class DAC into your system because it may break your brain and your prior beliefs/ thoughts.

[Mr. Big]

With my X4s I am running an MSB Premier with Powerbase and Network Renderer. Probably will be my last DAC unless I one day move to the Reference model.

Prior to the MSB I had a Denafrips Terminator II. That DAC did a really nice job and sounded great but the MSB sonic improvements are as you would expect for the difference in price. For those who believe (think, with no evidence if we are being technically correct) that anything that costs more than $5k just isn't worth is and it is diminishing returns... I strongly advise you to never insert a world class DAC into your system because it may break your brain and your prior beliefs/ thoughts.

Very nice DAC indeed, I hope for $25K you see God every time you play a tune...smile! If your happy that all that counts and you got your money worth, me kids education to pay for.

[Bingenito]

No kids, no wife (truly low noise floor)  Just music, barbells and hiking shoes.

[Freo-1]

DACs are one of the things that bother me. I understand their place in the chain but I've never really paid any attention to them until getting the X5s and I still am not sure they do anything. I watch a bunch of video reviews and apparently anyone can hear differences because of DACS which almost seems like snakeoil to me.

Assuming that DACs make a significant difference in your system, I have a few questions.

1.  What DAC are you using and why?
2.  Is there a DAC that works best with Spatial Audio Labs' speakers and why?
3.  Is there any point in getting a DAC when the technology seems to be improving every year?

DACs can and do sound different. As I changed out DACs, did indeed notice that some DACs do sound better than others.  Whilst I agree that many DACs sound more similar than different,  there are some that truly stand out from the field.  Had a RME ADI-2,  which was slight improvement from a Oppo SDAC3.  When I tried  Chord Hugo-2,  that was a real game changer.  Suddenly,  the time-domain portion of playback was MUCH better.  The Chord sounds significantly closer to a high end analog setup. 


Eventually obtained a Chord M-Scaler/Hugo-TT2 combination.  The sound is absolutely amazing.   No digital harshness whatsoever.  When. CDs are upscaled to 705KHz,  it's as good as it gets. The CD collection becomes a high resolution collection.  The reason it sounds so good is the Watts Transient Alignment algorithm. Provides one million taps for a 44.1 khz signal. 


The Hugo-TT2 also acts as a preamp and a headphone amp.   Does a fantastic job of driving a pair of monoblock tube amps, as well as a pair of Abyss 1266 phi CC headphones. 

[Daryl Zero]

No kids, no wife (truly low noise floor)  Just music, barbells and hiking shoes.

I didn't know you were doing time. How long is your stretch?

[Daryl Zero]

Very nice DAC indeed, I hope for $25K you see God every time you play a tune...smile! If your happy that all that counts and you got your money worth, me kids education to pay for.

For $25K it better be an entertaining god at that.

[Bingenito]

didn't know you were doing time. How long is your stretch?

Me? Nope I am a free agent. Fixed that glitch!

Benefits include:
- Proper speaker placement
- Blackest backgrounds ever
- Giant cables on risers
- Anything else you want to do or say in your house  , this includes buying expensive gear (back to the subject)

[doggie]

I already posted earlier about what DAC I am using but I thought that I would make a more general suggestion.

Rather than pursuing the trial and error method to find equipment or surfing the net to get a consensus about the "best" product, try to find out what the speaker manufacturer uses to demo their own equipment.

I have been fan of Linear Tube Audio equipment for a few years and have owned several of their products. For a while I experimented with various DACs, speakers and wiring. In time I realized that a good manufacturer with a house sound that I enjoy tends to cooperate with other like-minded good manufacturers that make equipment that is synergistic with their own. They also tend to use that equipment at trade shows to show their own product in it's best light and to present their own cultivated "vision" of good sound.

That realization brought me to Spatial speakers, Lampizator DAC's and Final Touch Audio cables all of which are remarkably synergistic with my integrated amp. The only problem I have now is that I cannot spend endless hours in hot pursuit which I have to admit that I enjoy. I am now limited to a bit of tube rolling and listening to music

I find that my X5s with associated equipment has transcended into what I would call "spooky" good.