There-in lies the challenge looking to upgrade right now. Current system is Pass Labs Aleph30, Magnepan 1.6QR speakers, Mogami wires, and an OPPO Sonica DAC.
The listening room was professionally analyzed and acoustically treated by GIK Acoustics.
Both the room and equipment exceed the performance of the (actually pretty darn good) Sonica DAC.
I auditioned a DirectStream DAC last year a friend owned with the Windom firmware. It was definitely a whole level above a good ESS Sabre chip DAC like the Sonica.
$5K is my limit. I do have a couple of quality audio prices to sell or trade to off-set going higher, but over current MSRP with an Ethernet connection would be a challenge. Iād really like to go PS Audio, and appreciate being American designed and made; plus Paulās attitude towards his customers seems genuine and terrific. Transparency is a big plus.
Itās difficult to stare into an information vacuum of āwhen and how muchā for the new mkII product. With supply shortages are we looking at next year sometime? Who knows the price? Iād be OK waiting if I knew the mkII was $ obtainable, but kick myself for standing by for 6 months without any DAC upgrade only find MkII unavailable or priced out of reach.
As Iāve written earlier, Iād be happy with the current mk1 product, but resale is already starting to slip and likely slip a lot more as we move closer to the mkII introduction. If I were rich, I wouldnāt care.
Itās all so relative and āyour mileage may vary.ā I have an Oppo UDP-205 AND a DSD. The DSD I consider twice as great sounding as the Oppo or more. ASVās opinions thus seem ridiculous to me!
Itās hard to make any judgments without hearing the devices themselves. . . . Which is a big hurdle for many. Luckily for me budget is just not there for sampling other DACs and buying a new one; as a result the fact that I am very happy with my DSD and DMP combo is a very satisfying one.
My friend says heās gotten over the 500 hrs. on his May and we arranged for him to bring it over this coming Monday afternoon to compare it to my modified DS. He also wants to check out my PST and Esoteric. Weāll see what happens with this May finally.
My friendās speakers are broken and are in the process of finding new ones so he is just getting the May ready for the occasion. This is his first venture into hi end digital so no previous DACs. He had a pretty high end analog rig before but sold it and decided to concentrate on streaming hence the Lumin Mini. The May is his first DAC.
Halo Audioās website is pretty atrocious. They have both the Spring 3 and May without much explanation of the differences. If I did not read this forum thread It would be challenging to know the differences in version per model.
That said it did not look like they have an audition period? Any insight?
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