I’m surprised that, unless I missed it, nobody has mentioned the Marantz SACD players/streamers that upscale to DSD.
FWIW I spent some time with the TT2 + MScaler in a different system. I couldn’t a/b it with my DS but I didn’t like it as much as the DAVE I also auditioned a good amount. With the MScaler it was a little etched for my tastes, something unnatural about the HF response. It is a little cleaner than the DS but still sounded a bit digital to me whereas the DS is always natural. I’m also looking for a potential next step above the DS and never considered any of the Chord units, while very nice, to be a substantial enough difference. I will say Sunlight is sounding a bit more like the Chords to me now in both positive and negative ways which could be an argument that the Chord sound was always more accurate, but I’m letting Sunlight burn in a bit more (it does seem to be smoothing out).
As a control I use a RME ADI-2 DAC which I have found to be exceptionally good in the < $5k bracket and pretty damn close to the DS. If anyone is looking to go on a DAC selection journey I strongly recommend keeping a RME handy as a steady reference. You can get one used under $1k which isn’t chump change but is more than worth it to save your sanity when comparison shopping and A/B testing (it is unerringly consistent), and holds resale very well.
I tried one maybe a year and a half ago. It had a problem where you could not change the recording mode out of 44.1/16, even though it was supposed to do DSD. And, I wasn’t impressed by its build quality, so I sent it back for a refund. But I’m glad you like yours. It does seem to be popular. Maybe I’m the only one in the universe that’s had bad luck with it!
Interesting, never had any problems with the RME - maybe a lemon, yes. How did it sound to you? I will be honest, while I prefer the DS to the RME, I can switch between the two and not get bent out of shape… yes the DS is better but it’s mostly subtle. And this is with $80k of gear in front of it.
The first thing I tried was to record with it. I wanted to make the best vinyl rips I could, and after spending hour after hour trying to get it to work at hi res without success, I boxed it back up. I never got around to listening to it. Who knows, maybe UPS was playing football with it before it arrived.
Ah ok - the DAC FS model is a bit different from the ADC model you tried, with improvements to the DAC section, so the sound is different as well.
The piano sounds just right. Just like the Steinway D in my parents house, on which I learned to play.
Edit: this belongs in the Sunlight thread …
I tried a Terminator (not Plus) in my system and I preferred my DSD. DSD sounds more luxurious, Terminator more clinical, stiffer.
But last night a friend brought his Tambaqui over, along with his Kubala-Sosna cable.
Sell your car and buy a Tambaqui.
1 Like
Tambuqui is next on the audition list, after I get through my massive review backlog 
I had a Tambaqui here. The Tam was good but, I liked my Rockna Wavedream Signature Balanced better.
1 Like
Having never heard of it, I thought you were making up the name. But I just read the Six Moons review and while my usual headache from reading a Six Moons review subsides, I’ll say that the Rockna sounds intriguing! Are you feeding it from a transport?
Rockna dacs are designed by Nicolai Jitariu who is a very well known dac designer. He has done work for MSB among others. I am using a Rockna Wavedream NET feeding my Rockna dac via I2S HDMI. The NET has a transport as well as a 1 TB ssd which holds my music.
My Rockna dac has a lossless volume control which controls the volume on my AGD Audion amps.
So many dacs, …
How to choose ?
Yeah it’s a personal preference thing. I’ve just tended to prefer, in general, the AKM sound signatures to those of the ESS in the chip-based dacs I’ve demoed last couple years (not implying all sound same, of course, just a trend)