Dac suggestions. Again.

Also, and this may sound like a silly question. The bit rate that DAC's can play is confusing. Can these thigs not do 320 MP3's as they all seem to go up to 192? 

Not silly at all, but '320 MP3' is an indication of how many kilobits per second (kbps or kb/s) of data the compressed music uses, whereas 192kHz is a sampling rate, and not at all the same thing. A 192kHz/24-bit track uses a data-rate somewhere up to 9600kbps; an MP3 file almost always uses 44.1kHz sampling.

@afterworks, I have the Dynaudio A 110 also and I use a Nu Force HDP Dac. USB or coax sound quite similar. I am very pleased with the sound quality. There are Dacs which produce a better sound via USB, others like the Atoll DAC 100 sound poorer.

I had the Arcam rDAC before, but I sent it back after a few days. The Nuforce has everything I need for the little money I paid.

I can only recommend it with the A 110.

If you want to spend more money have a look at the WADIA 121 or the NUForce DAC 9 which are a touch better.

How about a pre-owned Electrocompaniet ECD1. Supposed to be a nice musical DAC though will cost around the £750 mark which is more than your suggestions. Do you have a budget in mind?

Nice thinking!

Aside from that, I would recommend a Linn Sneaky (if budget can stretch); failing that, MDac, MF M1 Dac or Rega Dac.

There needs to be synergy with the Electro and the Dynaudio.

You could go for the Abrahamsen V6 dac which is almost identical to the Electrocompaniet ECD1 but a lot cheaper at £320 brand new !

It is made by Per Abrahamsen of Abrahamsen Audio Norway who was one of the founders of  Electrocompaniet before they were bought out a few years ago .

It can be bought mail order in this link .

http://www.store.abrahamsenaudio.no/

It should be a perfect match for the Electrocompaniet ECI5 sonically and pretty close visually

I would suggest you make a choice based on functionality requirements. You have a budget, but I would treat it as more of a ceiling, than a target.

There are some very capable DACs at not very much money, price increase gives more functionality, better build and perhaps better aesthetics, but certainly no guarantee of better sound.

This link is worth a read for some ideas

http://nwavguy.blogspot.co.uk/

you might also try out EDITED audio gungnir DAC or bifrost DAC if you're too impatient ( I know it'll appear as EDITED, but the link should work correctly). personally I'd wait for Gungnir.

I'm keeping an eye open on creations from this company because they make things the way it strikes right chords inside me. first of all they use no negative feedback in analog amplification stage. everybody normally uses negative feedback in order to reduce harmonic distortion but if you have a good enough design that is very linear from the start off you need no feedback. this is always a good sign when manufacturer don't revert to using negative feedback to make amplification stage more linear. second of all they don't use up-/ oversampling. they only allow for the original digital signal to be converted in it's native sampling frequency (this is called no oversampling (doh!) DAC, hence NOS DAC). the biggest advantage of NOS DACs is that they produce no digital artifacts normally associated with using digital filtering, like pre- and/ or post ringing of signal. people unanimously report that NOS DACs sound more "natural" or less "digital". but there's a drawback too. you won't have ruler flat frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz. you need to remove aliasing content from converted signal and analog filtering does not offer such steep cutting off as digital filtering (which you'll find in oversampling DACs). anyway, that's not a huge problem IMO as you'll get only some -3dB at 20kHz. 30-40 year olds will most certainly have problems hearing above 18kHz anyway.

ATM I'm not looking for any DACs. I'm perfectly happy with my CDP - Pathos Digit, which BTW uses no negative feedback as well . but if I were looking for one this Gungnir would most certainly be on the top of my list, due to price/ technological solutions used in design ratio. other than that EAR 192 DACute . but this one's way more expensive.

I'd like to listen to one of these myself, its right up the top of the ladder regarding measurments, state of the art and a good price.

in 'the active speakers club' thread there are also several dacs listed (most with vol control so very handy when used with your Dyns 110as)

Mine are the passive Dynaudios. 

I guess I'm just going to have to demo a load. I'm interested in the Abrahamsen, seems like a good bet and a decent price. But the Gungnir sounds interesting too. I'm not in a massive rush, I'm going to give myself some time to get used the the ECI5 first and reap the rewards from that upgrade first. 

So it looks like the Schiit Audio Grugnir is out>

http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products...

Waiting for some reviews then will start to look at trying a few out and getting one. 

Exciting!

You might be as well to try a DACmagic Plus alongside the M-DAC, but also compare with your existing audio interface.

I use the optical input on the Pro 24, although I don't know if it is in any way better than the Firewire connection. The Firewire mainly provides the power to the unit.

Were it not for the excellent price that I got the Pro 24 for, I might have gone the DACmagic Plus route myself.

I developed the Bushmaster TC-7530DC DAC specifically upon request from customers who didn't need USB and so preferred if I spent the savings on a reduced retail price. So if you intend to use TOSLINK of Digital Coax then consider giving the Bushmster a try. Without the USB stage the DAC was less expensive to design and build, which is reflected in the lower reatil price.

Mind you, the lower price has placed it a bit out of sight of customers looking to spend a lot more in the believe that the Bushmaster won't sound as good as something more expensive. It is a two edged sword for me. I am not into artificially bumping the price up just so that I can attract buyers who want to pay more. It's more about the performance for me.