Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
Does anyone have any recommendations for a Balanced DAC with XLR outputs that would feed into this?
I've personally be heavily leaning towards getting the Schiit Jotunheim Multibit just as a way to explore the non-deltasigma world. The Schiit DAC above that with balanced out (Gungnir) prices out at almost 1,300 for the multibit version which is just more than I'm willing to invest at this point.
That being said, having not explored multibit or R2R myself, what is the difference you've noticed in listening?
As I posted in (greater detail in) the thread on head-fi, Audio-gd's R2R DACs win on analog smoothness, not technicalities, but the R2R 1 brings enough details and dynamics to the mix if you've got the right downstream gear to take advantage (like the Elex or the THX AAA). I don't think audio objectivists will approve but those arguments have their limits in terms of what my ears want to hear, and what that viewpoint contributes to the conversation.
Edit: of course, the RME stuff I own isn't necessarily aimed at the hifi or "pleasure listening" consumer - since the RME stuff I own focuses on both input and output paths, there are no doubt other contenders that focus solely on the output path (DAC only versus A/D+D/A) - but the robust drivers that RME devices share coupled with the quality of build and components are universal signs of good bang for the buck.