The DAC-1000 seems to strive for an accurate, neutral presentation in my experience so far. If I want to add coloration into the chain, then I'll do it with an amp or headphones. Some people may like that, but for me personally, I want my source to be as close to neutral as possible. It's not as warm as the Havana DAC, but it still goes for a more 'analog' type of sound. Hopefully I'm making sense.īy colored, I mean that the Red Wine Audio Isabellina DAC has a slightly more warm and euphonic sound that one might expect from the presence of tubes (it's a tube hybrid). Once you start comparing a $1000 DAC to a $1300 or $1400 DAC though, I feel it's more a matter of personal taste rather than one such DAC being clearly better than another. In my experience, you're going to see the most variance between say $500 DACs and $1000+ DACs.

The big qualifier is that I have a difficult time telling the difference between a lot of higher priced DACs.

I can't say for certain that the DA11 and the DAC-1000 sound alike, just that from the limited time I spent with the DA11 I feel the DAC-1000 performs at a similar level.

For mac download Bite the Bullet