A beginning Audiophile looking for advice to buy a DAC

Julio A

New Member
Greetings my name is Julio I would like to ask what is a great audio DAC to pair with a vintage receiver and the HD600 headphones that I am in the process of buying. There are so many DAC's out there it is absolutely mind blowing that's why I came to this forum asking for help and advice. Thank you.
 
Well you say your vintage receiver is bright and your using headphones , not sure if you’ll be getting speakers ? . If your planning on getting speakers then I would recommend putting the bulk of your budget on the speakers . Now if your only using the headphones and want to plan for the future if your system and tame the brightness a bit you could look at the Peachtree dacs they fall within your budget, here’s one that has a built in amp , Dac , headphone amp etc .

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/132982188542

Audiofreak71
 
Well you say your vintage receiver is bright and your using headphones , not sure if you’ll be getting speakers ? . If your planning on getting speakers then I would recommend putting the bulk of your budget on the speakers . Now if your only using the headphones and want to plan for the future if your system and tame the brightness a bit you could look at the Peachtree dacs they fall within your budget, here’s one that has a built in amp , Dac , headphone amp etc .

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/132982188542

Audiofreak71
No not speakers haven't ruled out buying them in the future but for the moment what I plan on using are the HD 600 headphones as my main system of audio and powering them with a bright vintage receiver the only thing that's missing is a DAC which I do not know which one is the perfect one for me on a computer monitor, as I said before this my first foray into high end audio.
 
No not speakers haven't ruled out buying them in the future but for the moment what I plan on using are the HD 600 headphones as my main system of audio and powering them with a bright vintage receiver the only thing that's missing is a DAC which I do not know which one is the perfect one for me on a computer monitor, as I said before this my first foray into high end audio.
Well unfortunately your not going to find the perfect Dac or gear for that matter until you experiment with different gear . So your basically going to have to do your homework and decide what best fits your needs then take a chance on it sounding good to you unless you have access to demo the gear before you buy . No one can tell you what’s best , because the best gear is what sounds good and works for you and you only, with that said you can start by looking at the peach tree dacs and reading up on them . I only recommend peachtree because there a tube based Dac and would tame the brightness of your bright receiver. You can look into Tube dacs and read up on them . I own a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 Tube Dac for example.

Audiofreak71
 
Well unfortunately your not going to find the perfect Dac or gear for that matter until you experiment with different gear . So your basically going to have to do your homework and decide what best fits your needs then take a chance on it sounding good to you unless you have access to demo the gear before you buy . No one can tell you what’s best , because the best gear is what sounds good and works for you and you only, with that said you can start by looking at the peach tree dacs and reading up on them . I only recommend peachtree because there a tube based Dac and would tame the brightness of your bright receiver. You can look into Tube dacs and read up on them . I own a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 Tube Dac for example.

Audiofreak71
If I buy this DAC would I need a vintage receiver to pair it?
 
You can use the Aux or Tape on the receiver to hook the Dac up but if your only using headphones , maybe you should be looking at headphone amps and dacs like FiiO, or Woo audio etc . Check out those two companies, one is budget minded (FiiO) but make really good headphone amps and dacs and the other is more high end (WooAudio) .

Audiofreak71
 
I’m using a Schiit Modi 3 with a vintage Soundcraftsmen pre amp to HD-600s to very good effect. Modi 3 is well within your budget and very flexible on input types. I’m using a Macmini music server and usb as source. Leaves you money on the table for other things.
 
I'd look at the Topping Dx7 (very good DAC, probably good enough headphone amp) about $500
and bypass the receiver.
 
In that price range , a Muji Studio DAC II is pretty hard to beat. One of the best I've heard either with tube output stage on or off. It comes with NOS Phillips 12AX7 tubes installed.

I replaced the stock Phillips TDA1541A R1 chip with a used TDA1541A S1 I sourced locally.

Going to get the NE5532 OPAMPS replaced with sockets and roll in discrete Burson OPAMPS, and get mine converted to 240V for Australian power.

Despite these being based on old stock chips from the 80's they compete with the best DAC's which are significantly more expensive today despite not going higher than 16 bit 48khz. They're big though being a full sized stereo component.
 
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The best use of DAC is with computer. Computer ->DAC->receiver. I don't see a need for DAC in your configuration. I would just plug headphones into receiver.
 
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