Best DACs under £1,000

BigH

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2012
115
7
18,595
Visit site
Having read many reviews and users comments it seems the best ones are:

Benchmark DAC1 £900?

John Kenny JKDAC32 £500?

Audiolab M-DAC £600

Halide Design DAC HD £ 379.

Are there any others? The John Kenny is getting good reviews and some say its as good as the Benchmark.
 

matt49

Well-known member
Apr 7, 2013
51
1
18,540
Visit site
BigH said:
Having read many reviews and users comments it seems the best ones are:

Benchmark DAC1 £900?

John Kenny JKDAC32 £500?

Audiolab M-DAC £600

Halide Design DAC HD £ 379.

Are there any others? The John Kenny is getting good reviews and some say its as good as the Benchmark.

Not tried these but have heard/read good things about:

Metrum Octave Mk2 £800

Musical Fidelity M1 DAC £499

Have you seen the DAC round-up review in the July WHF?

Matt
 

ngibbs

New member
Jun 12, 2010
48
0
0
Visit site
Metrum Acoustics Octave DAC? Can't remember how much it is exactly, but well under £1000. Now with a new mark 2 version.
 

BigH

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2012
115
7
18,595
Visit site
matt49 said:
Not tried these but have heard/read good things about:

Metrum Octave Mk2 £800

Musical Fidelity M1 DAC £499

Have you seen the DAC round-up review in the July WHF?

Matt

Did no know about Metrum Octave, thanks. In the JUly WHF in the shops yet?
 

ngibbs

New member
Jun 12, 2010
48
0
0
Visit site
I'm afraid I didn't, so I've no idea how they compare. Bought the Octave DAC blind, but I liked it so much I bought another one for my second system! A lot of hullabaloo was made when they first came out: magazine reviews proclaiming they should cost 10 times the price, etc., etc.. No idea if it's true but I like it! Suits computer-based audio best apparantly, and quite unforgiving with less that opitimal sources and compressed music files.

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/metrum-octave-dac-without-filtering-recommended-by-hi-fi-choice

Doesn't make my Sonos sound much cop for instance (but then again neither did my DAC XP....). Both Mac with iTunes + Bit Perfect and Synology NAS direct sound great though. Depends on what you're going to want to use it for I guess.
 

BigH

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2012
115
7
18,595
Visit site
Just read some reviews of the Octave DAC and they are all good.

Also I see there is a new John Kenny Ciúnas DAC for Euro 550 which is meant to be as good as the Octave but different, one persons views "When the Ciúnas and Octave differed was the Octave had something little sweeter with sax and female vocal, sort of in the same was a valve SE amp might have. The Ciúnas was better at the top end with a crisper more detailed sound. The two DACs were very close and I could happily live with either. I suppose the old cliché comes out, the Octave was a little more analogue but not by a lot."

Anyone heard the Jolida Glass FX DAC II which is £540?
 

Pete68

New member
Nov 15, 2012
22
0
0
Visit site
A blind test will show that most DACs at the mid price band will sound the same apart for one or two ( the Metrum Octave being one of them).... so I've read.
 

pete321

New member
Aug 20, 2008
145
0
0
Visit site
I compared the M-DAC to the Rega DAC, I preferred the Rega. I replaced that recently with a Teac UD-501 as I wanted DSD playback capability. The build and components used for the money (£699) make it great value. It's a very natural sounding DAC with good filter options. Teac aren't necesarily the first company you'd think of when buying a DAC, but I think the 501 is real winner.
 

richardw42

New member
May 2, 2010
299
0
0
Visit site
I can't help feeling that DACs are the latest big con of the hi Fi world.

You've got the HRT one at under £200 (arguably still overpriced) and then you've got ones at many hundreds or thousands of pounds with off board PSUs. When the former makes do with USB power.

Lots of TVs, CDPs etc have competent DACs, but we're still being told to spend again.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I recently bought a Behringer UCA-202 for the princely sum of £25, and it's very good
smiley-smile.gif
 

CnoEvil

New member
Aug 21, 2009
556
13
0
Visit site
The Metrum Octave is an unusual and excellent suggestion (provided the Mk2 is as good as the original)......I haven't heard one, but it would on my shortlist due to the reviews of this splendid NOS Dac (after a Linn Sneaky DS :shifty: )
 

p_m_brown

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2013
56
0
18,540
Visit site
Well I had an interesting shoot out recently between the rather futuristic looking M2Tech Young dac and a Leema Elements dac.

They both sound superb but the Leema edged it on dragging out the most detail, most connectivity and the fact tht it is also a decent preamp with analogue volume control. Both available for under £1k and definately worth a try (at home, back to back imo).

BTW, I thought your Avi's have a dac in them already?
 

ID.

New member
Feb 22, 2010
207
1
0
Visit site
pete321 said:
Teac aren't necesarily the first company you'd think of when buying a DAC, but I think the 501 is real winner.

I have a lot of respect for TEAC products, especially as I can see techniques and technology from their high end range, Esoteric, filtering down to TEAC products (expertise with class D, DACs, etc.)

http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/dacon/indexe.html

Just for the heck of it I'd love to have a set up with

http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/g01/indexe.html

and a pair of monoaural DACs

http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/d01/indexe.html

So TEAC have access to some serious DAC know-how.
 

Cypher

New member
Jun 8, 2007
156
0
0
Visit site
Don't forget the Micromega Mydac. I've been reading a lot of reviews of this one and they all are extremely positive. I think I'm gonna check it out :grin:
 

BigH

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2012
115
7
18,595
Visit site
Cypher said:
Don't forget the Micromega Mydac. I've been reading a lot of reviews of this one and they all are extremely positive. I think I'm gonna check it out :grin:

The WHF review was not that good.

If you want something lively try the Jolida FX Glass DAC.
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts