EAD mark 3 (Enlightened Audio) VS. new DAC as upgrade; Sabre Chips

[soundquest]

I am considering upgrading my outboard DAC: EAD (Enlightened Audio Designs) 7000 mark 3. I am wondering if it is now clearly outpaced by newer DACs. I am particularly curious about the new Sabre chip DACs. Anyone with experience with these DACs?

Current “representative” crop of DACs under consideration:
Wyred Dac1 or Dac2
Eastern Electric Dac
Audio-GD (NOT a Sabre dac and the one I know least about)

I would appreciate any feedback on this quest, including alternate suggestions. FYI. Most of my cds are standard redbook, a very few HDCD. All now ripped lossless via XLD to a mac mini, but I use my old Rotel as well. Thank you.

 

[SylvainQc]

I am considering upgrading my outboard DAC: EAD (Enlightened Audio Designs) 7000 mark 3. I am wondering if it is now clearly outpaced by newer DACs. I am particularly curious about the new Sabre chip DACs. Anyone with experience with these DACs?

Current “representative” crop of DACs under consideration:
Wyred Dac1 or Dac2
Eastern Electric Dac
Audio-GD (NOT a Sabre dac and the one I know least about)

I would appreciate any feedback on this quest, including alternate suggestions. FYI. Most of my cds are standard redbook, a very few HDCD. All now ripped lossless via XLD to a mac mini, but I use my old Rotel as well. Thank you.

Hi, this seems quite an "old" thread, but I'm curious to see what happened next about your EAD III upgrade. I own a EAD DSD-7000 Mk1 that died at some point, and could not get it fixed. I bought a MkIII, and a Chord Mojo I and then Chord 2Qute.. and finally a friend did repair my MKI ... To make a long story short.. the MK1 sounds the best of them all. It was the digital input chipset that was defective. It was upgraded by the same occasion. I hope you kept your EAD Dac.. They're really great. Sylvain Qc

 

[Art K.]

I have a friend on another forum who has an EAD DAC and we were just messaging today. This is what he has and has to say about it; “ Enlightened Audio Design DSP-7000 MK3. It uses dual PCM63-K chips and I even had it sent off to one of the original engineers to be fully recapped and upgraded slightly. It’s by far the best sounding DAC I’ve ever heard.” He has a pretty high end setup so is a pretty reliable source for what sounds good.

 

[SylvainQc]

I had both the Mk1 and Mk3 side by side for months, and was a bit surprised to clearly prefer the Mk1.. and kept that one. Also, Chord 2qute and Mojo were part of the comparison. I could not afford Chord's Qutest or Hugo. The EAD 1 or 3 are certainly amazing. I'd never sell mine..