One of the most attractive features of the SB3 is the ability to use external DACs due to the transparent coax output.
Since the SB3's design already includes a top notch Burr Brown DAC, an old 1990's outdated DAC or a cheapie little box, I am guessing, is not going to cut it. I want something that would literally blow me away, not just barely audible, if you know what I mean. The minimum requirement for an external DAC would be a tube output stage and/or a more advanced 24 bit DAC chip IMHO. The Benchmark DAC-1 is a nice unit, but the near 1K price tag is a little steep for me. I have come across the Chinese made Lite DAC-60 and it seems to be just what I was looking for. It has two 6922 tubes in the analog buffer and dual Burr Brown 24 bit DACs. Construction is also impressive with two large PS transformers and decent quality parts. The full size chassis has a large machined aluminum front panel which reminds me of the old Sonic Frontiers products. The price is $475 air shipped from the factory. My Audio Research PH3 phono stage also uses 6922s, so I am quite familiar with them. I even have some NOS Bugle Boy 6DJ8s that I can use for tube rolling ;-) I think I am going to go for this one. Sounds like one heck of a deal to me. Best, crooner +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Filename: dacfront.jpg | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=851| +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- crooner ------------------------------------------------------------------------ crooner's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3379 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20789 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
