DACs under $1000

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories DACs
1

So currently I’ve been running the D70 for a while now. Pretty happy with it, but curious to know what other DACs people have tried that they are really fond of for the sound… measurements aside.
A few that come to mind seem to be…

Ares Denafrips R2R
SMSL D1 ($850 when its on massdrop)
Massdrop Airist R2R
Chord Mojo

Honestly, I am very happy with the audio chain I have now… but I am curious enough to want to try and play with a few DACs, since I don’t have much DAC experience. Probably won’t go crazy with anything over $1000 anytime soon though.

2

Well, what type of sound are you going for in the dac?

3

Bifrost Multi-bit Is another one that came to mind.

4

I’m not sure, I have not played with DACs enough and how they would affect the sound of my audio chain to know what I want to aim for.

5

Well, I guess would you be more looking for analytical, or more relaxed/warm, or something more fun? Like what do you want to add to your chain, and what do you want to minimize

6

I guess it’s less about aiming for a certain sound and more curious to try something somebody else found pleasing for one reason or another… just to try it for myself and see how I feel about it. Like right now I feel like I have a fairly analytical, clean chain… but why not try something more colored like the Chord? Or whatever the bifrost does? I have no idea what the Bifrost would do.

7

The bifrost multibit would be a more relaxed sound that might appear to give more space or stage.

Honestly I would pick the ares II out of all of these personally if you wanted something more “”“musical”""

Also surprised to not see a adi 2 on here

8

Yeah, that does sound intriguing, actually.

9

Right, Adi 2… just forgot. lol

10

This is the list I came up with

Bifrost 2 Multibit
Used Gungnir Multibit
Denafrips Ares
Soekris 1321/1421
Used RME Adi
Metrum Acoustics Flint or Amethyust
Massdrop Artiste

There are a couple of other OK priced R2R DAC’s not on this list.
I picked up a used Gungnir multibit for $850, which seems pretty common price wise for an A2/USB Gen5.

11

Well, are we counting used here, as that would open up way more imo

12

Ares would have to be used also… it’s over $1000

13

I think we should encourage people in this price range to look at used.

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14

You can find the ares II on massdrop for 850 at times https://drop.com/buy/denafrips-ares-ii-r2r-dac

15

Yeah… I am no rush. I can wait to find a good used price on something. Or Drop

16

Also

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17

Oh nice. Yeah I’ll bookmark that one

18

You can buy an Ares 2 direct from the only authorized distributor vinshine for $768, it was out of stock last time I checked.

https://www.vinshineaudio.com/shop

19

yeah… out of stock and it seems like they raised the price

20

Yeah, every time I checked it was pretty much always out of stock