I understand the desire to caution on the subject of how easily/not easily it is to improve the undervalued Duet/SBC DACs, but I'm not sure a strict price structure is the way to do it. A route many here take, and I did too for over a year, is the $1K Lavry DA10. While I'm a fan, it didn't improve the SB3/C output as much as I liked to warrant the investment when I finally A/Bed them (bought electrostatic amp with two inputs).
Meanwhile there's a long list of vintage DACs that regularly show on eBay and Audiogon for $200 and up that destroy the SB3/C in comparison. Although they cannot be used with Slim Devices offerings because of inputs, the under $500 new Apogee Duet and Headamp Pico are but two less than half in price, better in overall SQ, DACs I compared to the Lavry recently. The latter is coming out as a $350 version soon. Anyway, I'm just not sure you can use a $400 dividing line to say worth of upgrading. Although I think the two Parasound 1100 HDs I got off of eBay for $250 each beat the Lavry in SE operation by most measurements, I'm also judging it differently at 1/4th the investment. Although I think you can beat the Transporter at its price, many suggestions of upgrading the SB3/C approach its cost which is a whole other question. -- blessingx '★' (http://www.last.fm/user/blessingx/) -'this american life' (http://thislife.org/), 'take-away shows' (http://www.blogotheque.net/spip.php?page=cae_all&lang=en), 'jazz profiles' (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10208861), 'streaming soundtracks' (http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/)- macbook ))) ⊗ squeezebox 3 → assemblage dac1 → rudistor nxØ2 sistema → at w1ØØØ / etys er4p/s ⊗ squeezebox 3 → parasound 11ØØ hd #1 → stax srm-ØØ7t → stax lambda sig / lambda pro ⊗ squeezebox 3 → parasound 11ØØ hd #2 → single power extreme platinum → senn hd58Ø x2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ blessingx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11754 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=52848
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