I would like to upgrade my DAC (a PT Ordinal) and am looking for a second
hand DAC costing up to £1400. Any suggestions please?

Dax Decade's seem to be offered for around that price which I quite facny
but have never had the chance to audition. Martin Colloms seems to regard
it very highly but I can never remember any other reviewers mentioning it.
This would suggest that the Decade has a distinctive sound character which
may not appeal to everyone. Could anyone give me any indication of how the
Decade sounds?

Eight to 9 year old Mark Levinson's and Theta's are also around this price
range but do these loose out to later more down market DAC's which may be
more up to date performance-wise?

All my system is second hand and my transport is a Theta Data Basic, ArgoHR
pre and Beard P100 power amp with AVI speakers.

Any suggestions or observations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Julian

Dear Julian
I can't comment on the Dacs you mention as I have not heard them. However I
can recommend the Chord DAC 64, I obtained mine for £1100, you should be
able to find one for less than £1400.

Regards Richard
"julian.thomas3" wrote in message
...
I would like to upgrade my DAC (a PT Ordinal) and am looking for a second
hand DAC costing up to £1400. Any suggestions please?

Dax Decade's seem to be offered for around that price which I quite facny
but have never had the chance to audition. Martin Colloms seems to regard
it very highly but I can never remember any other reviewers mentioning it.
This would suggest that the Decade has a distinctive sound character which
may not appeal to everyone. Could anyone give me any indication of how the
Decade sounds?

Eight to 9 year old Mark Levinson's and Theta's are also around this price
range but do these loose out to later more down market DAC's which may be
more up to date performance-wise?

All my system is second hand and my transport is a Theta Data Basic,
ArgoHR
pre and Beard P100 power amp with AVI speakers.

Any suggestions or observations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Julian

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 09:27:17 -0000, "Richard Wall"
wrote:

Dear Julian
I can't comment on the Dacs you mention as I have not heard them. However I
can recommend the Chord DAC 64, I obtained mine for £1100, you should be
able to find one for less than £1400.

You'll struggle to beat the performance of a Meridian or Audiolab DAC,
so it's worth keeping an eye out for those little beauties, as they
will be a *lot* cheaper!
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering