DAC’s and streaming equipments upgrade

Hi Ascend community,

I’m having my afternoon coffee and got some free time to test different equipments I recently purchased. I’m not a crazy critical listener but I like to share my thoughts. Lately I was looking for DAC’s & streamers to pair with my newly upgraded system, Sierra 2EX and Willsenton R8 tube amp. Out of curiosity, I decided to AB test Topping D90, Bluesound Node 2i, Schiit Modi 3, so a range of tiers I’ve considered and wanted to hear how big of a difference it sounded.

For the song, I played Chantel Chamberland Basame Muncho and random tracks in the album, something I enjoy listening to using Tidal Hifi & Spotify premium. The Modi was the less favorable of course, but it’s affordable, had an acceptable and meaty full sound. The Node, I heard about the friendly user interface and a neat little minimalist lifestyle component intrigues me. So comparing to the D90, Node had harsher highs, thinner voice, and music felt mushed up. The D90 was another level! I used Bluetooth to stream with the D90, so I can AB quickly with a phone. I heard refinement! Chantel Chamberland has a smokey voice that the D90 emphasized better with detailed, smoothness, warmth and airy vocal. There were better vocals and instrumental separations, easily defined and where I wasn’t hearing from the others. Music had a dark and dynamic sound. The bass had a nice thump like hearing a quick and tight heartbeat.

Overall, my goal is to bring out the potential of the Sierra 2EX with a budget friendly system and tailor the system to my taste. I realized after upgrading to a tube amplifier, how important is to have a strong and synchronized front end components. I think the Topping D90 non MQA version is a keeper at $800, $200 more than the Bluesound Node 2i and well worth the extra refinement. Also, detail matters a lot when I listen to lows volumes at night. I like a strong seductive airy whisper sound, music separations with light tight thumping bass. The bluetooth on the D90 is just as good and simple to use as the Node BluOS interface. I don’t see the purpose to having a separate streamer device. I heard a Tidal Connect was coming out so I can use my phone to control my laptop as a remote like Spotify. A laptop connected to the D90 has a more superior sound than bluetooth. I may return the Node or possibly it’s going to my second system with the Sierra 1’s that I upgraded from. The Schiit Mode 3 is affordable enough to keep and continue playing with. To me music is like wine tasting, it’s all subjective, you have to AB test for yourself to hear the difference, pick out the sound of your liking, and refine your taste through the audio building journey.

Sounds like you've made your decision and you should be happy with it based on your preferences, etc.

I would say, based on having a tube amp that will already have a tube-like warmth, that the D90's hyper detailed presentation complements that well. I would have put it up against a more appropriate competitor in the Schiit Bifrost 2, price and performance wise, but it's not worth going backwards at this point. I've heard from at least 1 reviewer who thought, going into the review, that he'd prefer the detailed presentation of the D90 to the Bifrost, but actually came away preferring the Bifrost.

Biforst is a good contender and seems to be well rounded from what I have researched with everything sounding pretty good. Also great return policy from Schiit. On the other hand, the D90 seems to have an edge on music separations, extra detailed refinement that’s comparable to more expensive DAC’s and which I was looking for to complement with the Raal Tweeters. It’s hard to justify the actual sound base on just reviews. I do only trust my own hearing =). Not sure if I’m willing to do an AB test of the two since D90 at Apos (seller) charges a hefty 20% restock and return shipping I think. Originally all I wanted was the Bluesound Node 2i, so I didn’t think too much with ABing DAC’s in the D90 range. Haha, already way over stretched the budget, from $1k to $3.8k worth of upgrades and potential AB sound testing cost.

Thanks for your insight.

No harm, no foul, just different "flavors" between the various dacs. You'd have to really listen, do quick a/b switching, level matched as best you can, etc. to truly pick out all the differences/nuances. Not worth going back since you've closed the deal!

I actually just put a Bifrost 2 in my system to "upgrade" from the built-in Burr-Brown chip dac in my Parasound P5. That is still a really good dac, but I'm really enjoying what a multibit/R2R type dac is giving me in terms of detail, naturalness, and 3 dimensionality. Hearing differences like sounds that were not fully fleshed out and digital sounding becoming actual sounds of instruments, etc. and being better fleshed out. They have a better sense of physical space and of being "in the room" in a certain place in the soundstage. I have listened to tracks the whole way through where before I'd skip through stuff because I was hearing a different rendition of them. I got sucked into the performance.

Wow, glad you have decided on the Bifrost and found so much joy in sound. Audio listening is seductive and magical. There’s an unlimited combinations of gear to tailor to our taste and fine tune our system. It’s an on-going journey.

I think if you put a blindfold on those differences disappear.

My experience watching others go down the DAC rabbit hole are that you'll just drive yourself nuts trying to hear inaudible differences between them. It's an exercise in self deception, imo.

I can definitely see that and how our mind can manipulate a perception. It’s similar to when we do blind tasting with wine. The whole audio hobby can be a rabbit hole, trying to gain settle improvements that maybe only we, ourselves can only hear and that is what makes a person an audio enthusiast.

Opinions vary!