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I have a Benchmark DAC2 DX. Easily the best sounding DAC I've come across, by a LOT!Benchmark just came out with the DAC3. Gotta believe that it is even better than the DAC2.
Just an FYI, I'll have an iFi Black iDSD unit in my hands in the next few days. Just as context, I like the old/original silver iDSD better than any other DAC I heard up to the Vega at $3500. I'm hoping the Black is a significant improvement on the Silver.
Oppo dealer margins are over 10%,,,,,but not much. This is why you will never see an Oppo discounted......and if a dealer advertised it lower than retail then Oppo would drop them in a second. Remember, Oppo also sells direct....so they would not want a dealer underselling them. Oppo has the highest resale value of any product that I have ever seen. What they do is ridiculously good. They do use some junk parts in some places and they are not tweakers but the basic engineering is fantastic and they can be modded to the cow's come home.You want to see value.....then look at Gustard, LKS and other Chinese products. These guys are great engineers and the parts quality and production quality of these things (not to mention the sound quality) is though the roof good. Basically, they are selling $3000+ products for under $1000. Check out the pics of these products insides and compare them to other US made DACs under $4000......you will be surprised.
jarcher,Did you actually read the review of the Holo Spring on Computer Audiophile by Audio Circles' High Rez Circle facilitator teb b?? It's very expensive and time consuming to audition a bunch of DACs. I try to find reviewers to trust and go from there. You have to take a chance. IMO that's the way it is now with the downfall of brick and mortar audio stores . Even with the stores, it's still difficult to predict how a piece will sound until you get it home, relax and listen to it in your own system. You try to navigate your way . I've had fairly good luck so far.
When it comes to audio I believe what I hear, not what I read, because what's important is what it sounds like to me and if I like it. Which is the way it should be for everyone. Trusting a reviewer doesn't come into it. You trust your own ears - or trusting someone who knows you and what you like to make a recommendation. Which is what a good salesperson at those disappearing B&Ms are supposed to do. And then you try it out at home. A decent B&M or even Internet retailer or direct co allows you to try it at home. And if they don't you should shop elsewhere. Sorry - there's no excuse to be lazy or take a shot in the dark, unless you like gambling with your money.
Ah, I see...you're a dealer!
Yup - proudly one on the road to downfall. Rajacat - not trying to slam your purchase of a Holo Audio DAC. Just suggesting to folks that they should try things for themselves and buy from people, whether brick and mortar, Internet or direct from manufacture, where they can either try before they buy, or easily get their money back if they're not satisfied.
You're stating the obvious. Of course its best to audition beforehand. OTOH even if someone came into your store and took each DAC home to try, there would still be a lot of dacs out there that they'll never have a chance to audition. Therefore they'll really never know if they found their "perfect" dac. You could spend weeks auditioning, A/B tests, etc and still not know where you stand until you live with the DACs for at least a month each. All this compounded if you happen to live out in the boondocks.
+1I have personally found any DAC needs to be left on for at least 24 hours for optimal listening and this is after it is broken in. Taking your DAC to the B&M stores is a waste of time. The store DAC will probably beat yours every time and in reality that might not be true.There are a lot of great sounding dacs out there now. I have heard a lot of the 4-7k days for 30 days or more. Many dacs takes 200-1000 hours to even burn in.I have owned the Sony Music Server now for three years and it still sounds great to me. Sony's firmware upgrades keeps making it better sounding every time. I see these go for around 1k on the used market, one recently sold for 700 bucks.on EBay.
Tom - are you able to get Tidal or Pandora on the Sony music server? I've wondered if the made upgrades yet to add these services.
Don't know where you guys are shopping but standard in home auditions are 1 week minimum - which is plenty of time to figure things out!
30 days times 24 hours=720 hours. As I said some dacs takes up to 1000 hours and more to fully break in. I had one take over 1500 hours. I understand why so many here trades dacs before break in. Patience is a virtue when it comes to dacs.
