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RE: Bel Canto DAC3 vs Cullen Modified PS DL III vs ?

Posted by AbeCollins (A) on January 10, 2009 at 10:38:28

In Reply to: Bel Canto DAC3 vs Cullen Modified PS DL III vs ? posted by csig on January 9, 2009 at 13:58:06:

We listened to the Cullen Modified DL III (level 4 mod) at a friends house.

I thought it was an excellent sounding DAC, but not quite up there overall as compared to his Marantz SA7-S1 CD/SACD player, my Accuphase DP-65v CD player, or the Cary 306 SACD Pro player. (No, we weren't playing SACDs as a comparison, just redbook CDs).

We both agreed that the dedicated players seemed to have better resolution, coherence, and a more natural presentation.

I also considered the Bel Canto DAC3; I like it's feature set and versatility, but after researching that one, it appears that they've had several versions out with various little problems along the way and several firmware updates and the USB input does not support 24/96. The PS Audio DL III does not support 24/96 on USB either.

My buddy who had the Cullen modified DL III in his setup also auditioned the Benchmark DAC1. He wasn't impressed with it and said it was "mid-fi" at best. He liked the PS DL III better. I haven't heard the Benchmark but I trust his ears based on various listening sessions with him. We have similar expectations from our gear.

I have a Mac Mini set up as a music server and unfortunately, most well marketed and very popular DACs do not support 24bit/96-KHz INPUT on their USB ports. I plan to run either a 24/96 capable USB DAC or perhaps the Apogee Mini-Dac over Firewire within a couple months. I've been told by a number of people that USB or Firewire -should- sound better than the Mac's mini-TOSLINK optical output.

The end goal is that my music server system must sound at least as good as the Accuphase DP-65v CDP that I have been using for the past several years.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

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