The All Purpose Advice Thread

The Yiggy is in another system. It does not do DSD and MQA. I listen to it playing CDs on my PS Perfect Wave.
Sorry I put my inquirery in the wrong place. It just seemed like a good question for the DAC user section.

 

So with a Eitr/Modi Multibit feeding an ECP L2 using my HD800SDRSBAF, I am hearing into my music like never before. My audio memory is probably worse the most people here, but what I am getting shares characteristics of TOTL rigs I have heard over the years at meets and friends' places. I am looking for DAC recommendations under $1000 that will give me more resolution, with priorities on three dimensionality (soundstage, layering, space around the notes, etc). I can't go any brighter (cooler?) than what I already have, so on the warm side of neutral is preferred.

My first thoughts are a used Gungnir Multibit A1, but who knows how easily I can get one. I don't know where the Bifrost Multibit sits on the temperature or technicalities scale, but I have doubts that it is worth the upgrade price (plus I'd like to get a balanced DAC for future proofing (the L2 has XLR inputs, but can take single or balanced in). What are some other options if any under $1000 that would be a clear step up?

 

Correct, only SE output.

 

Saga+ and Aegir.

Nothing beats speaker amps when it comes to planars

 

I would reach out to our community and see if someone is thinking of selling their Gungnir A1 MB.

 

But when you use good ICs and a killer USB cable ( Wywires silver IC and Platinum USB) you get some magic.
Thank you Purr1n for the guidance.

 

Mr. purr1n, sir. Have you heard both DACs you informed me about? Which one sounds better? I am leaning towards the X-SabrePro because it is all and only a DAC.

 

@ChaChaRealSmooth before you actually drop a grand on that check in with our resident planarheads, of course.

But driving planars is like drag racing, your vehicle still has to be controllable but within reasonable limits power is king, so a speaker amp is usually the answer.

 

The anti cable nazis are disliking me. I refuse to enter the fray with them as I am only a new guy. They would not believe if they could hear it.

 

Have no fear of being "a new guy" if you're talking sense. I'm personally a disbeliever in expensive cables but to each their own; so long as reasonably priced ones exist (for those with good sense ), I'm fine with letting people spend their money on thousand-dollar strings.

While I do hear differences between DACs, surprisingly enough, said differences are hardly as pronounced as many make them out to be in reviews. The minutiae of it are more easily discerned by more... discerning listeners than I, so I understand being anal about upstream components, but for the most part passable DACs are inexpensive, and seeking anything more is just gilding on the cake as far as the whole audio experience goes.

purr1n, Hands, and several others on here have heard more DACs than I know exist, I think, so my opinion might be worth arse but I'll throw in a good word for iFi— they make some very nice toys, I've an eye on the iDSD pro for an "endgame" DAC upgrade. You could also check our Torq's "Life After Yggdrasil" thread, which is good reading for many DACs I'm too poor to buy

Edit: multiple typos

 

You might look for a used Ragnarok 1, I'd expect a few people to upgrade to 2.

 

This anti digital cable Nazi took it to PM to explain the dislike rather than just confuse a newcomer with random dislike clicks, and finds the immediate application of Godwin's Law to be disappointing.

 

This thread is gradually moving to "How to Win Friends..." territory.

 

@Claud Buy an Audient i14. It has TI/Burr Brown chips in a product designed by a storied British audio manufacturer just like your Chord. You can't go wrong.

 

At the risk of spoiling others' fun - some of the dislikes you're getting might be not because of your views on cables, but because you're asking questions that a simple search (top right corner of the webpage) might answer for you.

Enter Matrix X-Sabre Pro or ifi Pro iDSD into the search box, click 'titles only', and see what comes up and from who.