[rmihai0]

Which USED DAC do you personally like for $580 or less?

What about Musical Fidelity X-DACV3?

[Loftprojection]

I have the MHDT Paradisea, I paid $400 for it brand new but you have to be patient because there is not always one for sale on ebay.  Before buying it I had checked out the x-dacv3 and to my taste, I was not impressed, it sounds nice but I have a clear preference for the Paradisea.  Here is a review in case you don't know that one:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0406/mhdt_laboratory_dac.htm

[crossroadazn]

I like my NOS Derek shek DAC bought for $100 and there's no reason not to 

[BobM]

The different DAC topologies definitely give you different presentations. What type of presentation do you like and what kind of music do you listen to?

1- punchy for rock/jazz
2- softer for chamber music, simple folk and sparce instrumentation w/ voice
3- big dynamics for band or symphonic
4- inner detail and precision is most important
5- overall tonality is most important

The NOS DAC's seem to fill the role best for #2 & 5.

Op amp based DAC's seem to fill the role better for #1 & 3 and #4.

Choose your poison; you can have both but it gets expensive.

Enjoy,
Bob

[rmihai0]

Thank you ALL.

Interesting points Bob. I remember having a similar discussion 2 years ago, testing at his place an Ack Dack 2.0 prototype. He was also asking me "what kind of music do you like".

Now, if we are going into this details, the problem is that I listen to ALL kinds of music: symphonies but also chamber music, rock but also jazz, folk and also World music (with all kind of drums and other percussion instruments).

When I tried the Ack Dack I remember liking it very much for #2 & #5 - exactly as you said. But Ack Dack delivered poorly with heavy metal and large orchestras (Strauss - Zarathustra).

I concluded by than Ack Dack is not for me.

There seems to be compromises that I will have to make. That being said, still, Bob, which DAC would you think is more versatile that the others?

Thank you again

[BobM]

My own personal favorite that does the punchy-detail-dynamics thing, at reasonable cost, is still the Art DI/O. You can pick one up with the full Bolder Cable mods (Mensa and such) for under $200 when one comes up for sale, here or on Audiogon. For the low $$ outlay I would try that first and see if it floats your boat. You can easily turn it around again if not.

Enjoy,
Bob

[TheChairGuy]

Interesting observations, Bob - thanks for that 

The different DAC topologies definitely give you different presentations. What type of presentation do you like and what kind of music do you listen to?

1- punchy for rock/jazz
2- softer for chamber music, simple folk and sparce instrumentation w/ voice
3- big dynamics for band or symphonic
4- inner detail and precision is most important
5- overall tonality is most important

The NOS DAC's seem to fill the role best for #2 & 5.

Op amp based DAC's seem to fill the role better for #1 & 3 and #4.

Choose your poison; you can have both but it gets expensive.

Enjoy,
Bob

[BradJudy]

Since you're looking at buying used, you should be able to try some DACs and resell them at little or no loss (or even a gain if you catch a good deal). 

Some things to watch for on Audiogon:

Scott Nixon TubeDAC
Lite DAC-60
Perpetual Technologies P-3A
Channel Islands DAC
Bel Canto DAC1

Of course, a couple of these are in your price range new.