Contenders for a sub £1,500 DAC?

Audio Gear Talk
1

Looking to treat myself for Christmas!

I have a MF M2Si amp driving MA Silver 200 speakers and am looking for recommendations.

The DAC will connect to Roon via an Auralic Aries Mini.

Would love to hear suggestions to be researched before I stick it on Santa’s list…

2

RME ADI 2 DAC, SMSL SU9 have both and they are fantastic.

2 Likes
3

If you get a Teac NT-505 you can sell or repurpose the Aries Mini. The Teac is a very capable Roon endpoint and DAC with a competent headphone feed too. One box instead of two.

4

I loved my first DAC a Chord Qutest, for me it’s compact size was a plus, and praise its audio quality for that price.
H

5

Thanks for the initial recommendations.

6

Denafrips Ares II. And pocket the savings. Fantastic imaging. Great sound. Very analog-esque.

7

Denafrips Ares II ( I have connected to Musical Fidelity M6si and it sounds awesome )

8

http://www.soekris.dk/dac2541.html I own the earlier dac1541 which is an outstanding DAC for the price, competing with DACs twice its price. Early discussion of dac2541 is very positive, showing that it improves on dac1541. I’m tempted to get one for my R2R/multibit DAC collection which includes the >2x more expensive Yggdrasil A2 and Sonnet Morpheus as well as dac1541 ( I have several systems across two locations).

9

RME ADI 2 is so full of features it should cost 2K plus. Great ratings on Audio Science Reviews.

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10

Thanks for the replies, I took delivery of a Denafrips Ares II this morning.

3 Likes
11

Awesome choice. I really like my Ares II with Ropieee and Qobuz. :metal:

12

I run a Topping D90 connected to my MF M6si via XLR, works great.