Best DAC

I’d buy them separately firstly because keeping things that way IMO has always sounded better and also because things move quickly in the digital domain and a streaming platform or DAC that is up to date now could be outdated and improved upon within a year or so rather than having to replace everything you can just change a DAC say.

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Separate gives greatest flexibility - and as, in my view, the DAC is key to the character of the resultant analogue audio signal, having separate means you can get the best DAC, or rather the DAC that best suits you, and never need to change it again, whereas particularly if you stream from online sources the front end is likely to need periodic updating and/or replacement, which if the DAC is included is an unnecessary cost.

Against that, combined in a ‘streamer’ is simpler and takes less setup.

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Personally I’d keep them separate. It gives you more options for upgrades etc and some of which will give better sound quality than integrated all in one systems.

Feeding nicely into my tether thread and pointing me once again away from an NDX2 and towards Innuos x 2 plus a Qutest.

I went for a 172 after trying a Chord Hugo / SB Touch combo.

Great !!

Thanks IB , useful !!

The nDac is particularly excellent for the price it can be had for these days.
But if your budget will handle an ND5 XS2, then it’s also a great piece of kit.

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Do DACs actually have a sound signature at all? They can all introduce jitter and noise but assuming the good ones mostly have that cracked, is there any other difference?

I had MSB, PlaybackDesigns, Naim DAC, NDX, ND555, Linn Klimax DS, dCS Bartok and dCS Rossini.
dCS Rossini is by far the best I heard- it was so good I bought it after 10min.

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Which MSB? Just curious.

The Analog Dac with seperated power supply and volume control.

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looked like this:

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Looks a bit like a set of kitchen scales :wink:

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Too dull I guess?

Yes, they sound different. Usually better the more you spend as with most things.
Even inexpensive CDPs sound quite different if connected to a good system. Most of the difference is in the Dac, but the transport plays a part as well, especially if it pre-reads, then plays, the data.
I have 2 older CD changers, a Sony and a Denon, which sound very different. And my NDS sounds different (better) than any other Dac or CDP I’ve had, and as good as the Dac in the Linn Unidisk 1.1 I had.

Depends what you mean by sound signature. Hugo sounded so much more natural to me than the DAC in ND5XS. Dave added stunning clarity to the naturalness. Are those sound signatures? I guess so as they certainly are differences in sound character. Some people describe differences in other aspects of music, such as bass depth or soundstage. Again, differences in character so presumably sound signature.

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Yes…the PlaybackDesigns was more engaging but dCS is really emotional!

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Could you really have missed on TotalDAC?

Yes:-) mised it… I try to buy from local dealers here, especially if it comes to demo hifi at home or any service issues.