Ditch the streamer

Audio Gear Talk
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I have been using Roon for a couple of months after failing to find a satisfactory way of using Qobuz on my 4 year old Naim NDX. Roon is, of course, a far better way to access all my music plus Qobuz, but has added benefits - improved sound quality and no need for NAS as a simple external hard disc is plugged into the Roon server. And then I realised that all I am using the NDX for is its DAC with all other features covered and improved on by the Roon system. Following a recent Ebay auction I can sell my NDX for close to ÂŁ1500. Can I get a better DAC for that sort of money? If it has volume control I would also have no need for my pre-amp (Teddy Pardo PR1 which cost just over ÂŁ1000) as my vinyl is now in a different room/system, so the cost benefits go further. Research so far is pointing my towards Chord Hugo 2. Any thoughts?

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If you don’t mind the absence of MQA, then I suggest this DAC: https://www.rme-audio.de/adi-2-dac.html

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I’m a happy owner of the Chord Hugo 2 for a few years now, and this is the first DAC which quietly but surely fixed my “maybe-i-need-a-better-dac-after-a-few-months-itch” :wink:

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Stereophile latest edition tests and recommend an Okto Dac which is in your price range.

else Audio Science Review has tested a lot of Dacs; and the results bear little relation to the price

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Hugo 2 is a good choice, I own one for portable-ish use.

For something a bit exotic but lower priced, check out Danish-made http://www.soekris.dk/dac2541.html. I owned its predecessor dac1541 and had difficulty in parting with it, which I only did because I fell into a higher price tier and DAC design rabbit hole.

The two are quite different: Hugo 2 is like me after two double espressos in the morning, Soekris is more like me after my glass of wine with dinner.

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Looks interesting. Thank you

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Yes - it looks the way to go, but the portable look os not ideal on the rack

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Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I’ll be getting the Teddy Pardo DAC with volume control - initially couldn’t manage to contact them. Will be back to your suggestions if it fails to meet expectations.