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What DAC are you using?

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Thelonius:
I recently pulled out an old set of two way bookshelf speakers (totem rainmakers) that had been in my main system about 10 years ago, but had been in storage, to set up in a secondary system. My main system for ~5 years has been a small tube amp (30w) and ~1978 Klipsch La Scalas. This set up takes up a lot of space, and has an incredibly low WAF, but provides a very lively experience that I really enjoy, particularly for the live recordings that make up so much of my listening time.

I had the rainmakers kicking around and I thought I should start by trying them in my other room to build a system with some imaging. I paired them with an old Marantz 1060 integrated that I found for cheap locally and I was instantly struck by the imaging. I love my main system but imaging, and in particular image depth, is not what it does well. With the bookshelf speakers I can close my eyes and the speakers disappear. I initially set up this system with a schiit modi 3 DAC and the imaging was immediately noticeable. I decided to swap in a Denafrips Aries 2 and I was shocked by the difference. I think that the imaging is much clearer than with the Aries than the modi. In particular the image depth. There are other differences between the DACs (clarity, tonality, etc.) but the image clarity is what struck me the most. For most of my live recordings, this was my first chance to really hear the depth as it’s not as noticeable for me on my headphones or monitors, or in my main room. I can really feel the audience between my listening position and the music. This had me going back to albums that I had been listening to but had forgotten how good the imaging was on the recording. The intro to Time and Money on DSOTM, etc. are obvious examples of recordings that I find have significant depth. I will say that the downside of this is that recordings I made, and was quite happy with before, now can feel off centre in a way that was not nearly as noticeable before.

I was struck by two things.

First, the difference in the DAC made a much bigger difference than I thought, particularly given the modest nature of the system and, second, the biggest difference (imaging) would likely not even be that noticeable on my main system, or on headphones, because they don’t really image that well. My suspicion is that small two way speakers have this ability and, in general, it is less present as speakers get larger.

I recognize that the difference DACs make can be contentious, and are certainly system dependent, but I was caught off guard as I wasn’t expecting the difference to be that obvious, particularly on a relatively inexpensive system.

I am curious what DACS others may use and why people may like/choose them.

grawk:
Apogee ensemble and apogee element.

rocksuitcase:
I am using an Audio-gd FUN awesome DAC which kindms has loaned me on a permanent basis for several years now.
It pushes my headphones and Audio Engine A-2's and is a great tool for me mixing and finishing live recordings.
I recently switched to open back Hi-Fiman  Sundara phones and the change in imaging using these vs my old AT-50's is marked.
I have been searching for another DAC/headphone amp as the Audio-gd seems to need 25-30% more gain to push the Sundara's.
thanks for the detailed input and question. 

Thelonius:

--- Quote from: grawk on January 25, 2025, 12:55:44 PM ---Apogee ensemble and apogee element.

--- End quote ---

That looks like an interesting solution. It looks like an audio interface so I’m assuming that you are playing music back directly from computers.


--- Quote from: rocksuitcase on January 26, 2025, 12:36:51 AM ---I am using an Audio-gd FUN awesome DAC which kindms has loaned me on a permanent basis for several years now.
It pushes my headphones and Audio Engine A-2's and is a great tool for me mixing and finishing live recordings.
I recently switched to open back Hi-Fiman  Sundara phones and the change in imaging using these vs my old AT-50's is marked.
I have been searching for another DAC/headphone amp as the Audio-gd seems to need 25-30% more gain to push the Sundara's.
thanks for the detailed input and question. 

--- End quote ---

A friend of mine has a pair of Sundara's that I thought sounded great. I do find that planar magnetic headphones benefit from a good amount of power in general. It’s great that you are finding the imaging good with the Sundaras. I’m going to go back and try my larger headphones as I have been thinking about how to clearly hear the imaging when doing post on shows and my computer monitors and headphones I normally use for that task don’t really convey the image that well and therefore I’m not considering it when balancing levels etc.

grawk:
I primarily use computers and my turntable for playback, but the ensemble is basically a stand alone converter at this point.

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