I was going to say the Matrix SaberX Pro comes to mind, then I checked the price. 2 grand. Oops.
The Gumby and Yggy GS are in that list, although I prefer the warmer sound of the Bifrost 2. The Metrum Amethyst also sounds very good, and I wish I had spent more time with it. Bifrost 2, obviously.
I may have to walk that statement back a bit as the other DACs that I think sound better are out of the $1100-ish ballpark by more than I had remembered. You certainly aren’t going to get anything by Chord in that price point.
If you want a DAC with EQ and XLR outputs, the EQ requirement is what’s going to narrow you down to the ADI-2 almost exclusively at the price point.
It occurs to me that I have completely ignored the fact that the ADI-2 DAC also comes with a remote. That’s because I left it in the box and haven’t used it yet, although I will want to, as I need to use it now.
The Bifrost 2 also has a remote. The only 2 things it is useful for is polarity change and input selection, which makes the ADI-2’s remote quite a bit more useful.
FWIW, the novelty of the Anniversary Edition wears off after awhile. You can’t turn off those orange LEDs, and they aren’t diffused enough IMO. I’ve been thinking of replacing mine for a long time with the latest iteration of the ADI-2 DAC. If I decide to do so, I’ll list it on this forum first.
I do in fact have a near field system in the same bay window area as my A20 amp, Jotunheim, SMSL dac and Marantz CD Player. Right now I’m using the Marantz dac to feed some very neutral Focal speakers, and am using a surgical grade digital cable from the same Marantz to connect to a set of powered Audioengine HD6 speakers (which have a very musical internal dac) and matching Audioengine sub-woofer. The sound is a great combination of articulate and enjoyable, and suits me just fine for right now. But who knows what the future brings–the RME features mentioned in your second paragraph may come in very handy down the road.
I looked at the Matrix, Metrum, BF2, Gumby, Yggy and Chord Qutest, but none of them suit my needs for both outputs and EQ. So, as you said, this narrows me down to the RME ADI-2.
I have an ADI-2 in another system that’s feeding a Senn. HDV820 DAC/AMP as well as a WooAudio WA6 (with their upgraded tubes) and Burson Soloist. I really like what the RME does for those amps, so getting another one to feed my Beyer A20 and Schiit Jotunheim should be a good fit. I know there’s a bit of a mismatch in cost/quality with those 3 components, but I’ve read that the A20 and Jotunheim both scale well. In addition, some of the headphones I’ll be using with those amps also scale well, such as the HD 650 and HD6xx–both with XLR’s. Plus, the RME headphone amp should bring out the best in some of my more musical planars, such as the MadDog, OPPO PM1 and LCD2-Rev2.
So, everything considered, the RME ADI-2 seems to be the optimum solution.
Thanks very much to you and Torq. Your answers to my specific questions have really helped a lot…given me comfort that I’m making a good choice from among all the many DAC’s out there in the market. Thanks again…Lee
I’m considering ADI-2 Dac and Mytek Brooklyn Dac+. Mainly I intend to pair this with my Harbeth 30.2 and Luxman L509X. Using as headphone amp is second priority. Any comment would be appreciated.
With that level of amplification, I would invest a bit more and go with something like a Chord Hugo TT2. You can’t go wrong with the ADI-2 and its features but the TT2 is more resolving and scales up quite significantly with the addition of the M Scaler, which you can do later down the road.
I can’t comment about the Mytek DACs because I never heard them.
The following comments are assuming that the rigs in question will be used to drive headphones:
I can’t say much about the Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro MQA because I never heard it but based on trustworthy Torq’s impressions (or review - I don’t remember) of the Matrix Audio Element X streamer which has the same DAC as the X-Sabre Pro, it’s a solid DAC and if I recall it correctly, he considered one of the best (if not the best) implementations and sound of the ES9038Pro Chip. The X-Sabre Pro + Phonitor X combo is going to be a killer rig for sure and on par with the standalone TT2 but I don’t think that it can beat the TT2 + M Scaler combo.
@Torq might chime in to share his experience with the aforementioned units/rigs.
I’m not sure how the Phonitor X nor the TT2 perform as speaker amps.
Put it this way, strictly for D/A conversion, TT2 + M Scaler beats everything I’ve heard to date except Chord Dave both standalone and paired with the M Scaler and dCS Bartok.
Thanks. I was also interested in Hugo TT 2 at first but think that I would not use it at full potential because my speaker system is in the living room far from ideal listening room. FYI, L509X is about $6500 here in Thailand, far less expensive than in the states I suppose.
I’m not a Mytek fan, at least not of the units I’ve heard, which includes the DAC+, so I’d absolutely take the RME unit over that.
Other DACs to consider, if you don’t need the RME’s other features and don’t need a headphone output other than the one on your integrated amp, would include the Chord Qutest, Matrix X-Sabre Pro (with or without MQA) and Schiit Yggdrasil (latest version).
Unless you have other analog sources to accommodate, the Hugo TT 2 would act as DAC, pre-amp and headphone amplifier - and in a speaker rig would be best paired with a power amplifier rather than an integrated.
No one, at least no one paying attention, pays MSRP for these things.
You will if you do “Add to Cart” | “Checkout”, of course.
Always call your/the dealer when buying this stuff … in most cases you’ll be able to get a lower price (though how much lower varies based on how good a customer you are, what margins that brand carries, and works much better in person than online).
Quite poorly, as they don’t have power-amp sections in them!
Technically you can drive some less demanding, super-efficient, speakers off the XLR outputs on the TT2, but that’s a really small number of speakers and not ideal even if it does work.
They’ll both do an excellent job as pre-amps though (as long as you don’t need analog inputs since the Chord unit doesn’t have them).
Bifrost 2 has more low end drive and slam, a bit more tonal weight/richness, where as the Qutest sounds a bit more “nimble”, has a blacker background and resolves a little more detail.
