JezmondTutu
pfm Member
Interesting as I have a Dac202 as well and have never suffered any dropouts on optical or coax. Wouldn’t mind a few more inputs at times mind you!
dac preamp streamer suggestions sought..
- Thread starter tommyt
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JezmondTutu
pfm Member
That Cambridge Audio CXN looks interesting, like the idea of something that seamlessly connects to Spotify etc.
The Auralic Altair G1 is great and it has most of the features on your list. They kept all the best features from the original Altair, tweaked a few things based on learning from the earlier G2 and G1 series products and packed everything into the beautiful G1 casework.
You might also like to consider this one, which landed at Strictly Manor yesterday...
This is the Matrix Audio Element X. It is streamer, DAC, preamplifier and headphone amplifier with a useful mix of inputs and outputs. It supports very high rate DSD and PCM, MQA, TIDAL, Qobuz and Roon. Until a couple of months ago, it was the best performing DAC ever tested by Audio Science Review. It has now been bumped down to second place by another Matrix Audio DAC, the non-streaming X-Sabre Pro. It costs £2,800 which would seem to be within reach if understood your posts correctly. There is also a step down Element M model available at £1,700. You can read the full review here...
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...matrix-audio-element-x-dac-streamer-amp.7782/
Incidentally, the Element X uses the same chip found in the Nova Fidelity X45 Pro (the £5k one).
Yes - that Altair looks nice. Probably the nicest visually as a living room piece and I suspect the better designed/built of the ones listed here. Slight shame it doesnt have digital out so you could upgrade the dac if wanted to.
The Matrix looks nice too - It and the X45 Pro also shares that 9038pro DAC chip with the not-very-well-reviewed Oppo Sonica DAC. I guess it's what you do with it that counts..
I like that the x45 has analog in. The fact that it tries to do everything concerns me slightly for long term usability/reliability and also reports of slow startup times.