Dac-50
 

Anyone compared this dac with other dacs?
How much better is dc-37?
This would be for Accuphase e-650 with harbeth 30.2.
Also what would be a good streamer to use with dac 50 or dc 37?
Using only TIDAL no stored music.
My apologies for bad english.

For Tidal only there is no point in investigating into a very expensive DAC. The DAC-50, I am sure, would be perfectly fine.

Anyone?

I'd suggest you had a look at dCS Bartok.
Streamer, upsampler and DAC (optional: headphone amp) in one box (silver or black).
Sound quality of the dCS Bartok IMHO at least at the same level as Accuphase DACs.

Martin

P.S. I personally use dCS Vivaldi DAC with Accuphase pre-/poweramps.

@mblssmp2 thx for reply. Can you tell me why for TIDAL a Dac make no diffrence?

@meltemi thx for the reply. I prefer to stay with one brand. Like to know if there is a big difference in sound quality between dac 50 and dc 37

A DC37 would sound a lot better than a DAC50 - A big difference in price though. Does the sound improvement justify the quality difference, only you can decide as its your money. The DAC50 does have the advantage of not requiring analogue cables to your E-650 nor would it need a mains lead either.
Do get a decent USB cable from your streamer to whichever DAC you buy.

An Intel NUC running Roon Rock would be a good candidate for a streamer.

@terrycym thx for reply. Indeed the price diffrence is substantial. No home demo available. That’s why I ask question maybe someone had both or tried both?

The DC-37 is worth the extra money as far as I'm concerned

Tidal simply does not give you the same sound quality (or better musicality) as CDs or streamed wav files. I also use Tidal every now and then to explore new music and for that I have a Melco streamer connected to my DP-560. So I use the DAC of my CD player. But when I enjoy an album, I still buy the CD as it is dramatically better when you have a revealing system. I used to stream a lot before I arrived at Accuphase.

@mblssmp2 thx I ve been reading a lot that cd still better than tidal or Qobuz etc. So the best way forward the. Is to buy dp560 use that Dac for exploring music and use cd to enjoy music do I understand right? Is my system revealing enough?

Yes, this is what I would do but remember other people have different opinions and the last thing I would like to star is a big discussion of CDs versus streaming. You have an outstanding amp, that cuts beautifully through music. I have never listened to Harbeth speakers but they have a very good reputation. So yes, you should have a revealing enough system. BTW, Accuphase stands for accurate phase, which means that they try to build electronics which retain time/phase coherency. So in principle you want speakers, cables and good noise isolation of your electronic to enhance the musicality of your system.

CDs seem to go out of fashion and still Accuphase is sticking mainly to their CD players as a source. They make it easy for us now to also use streaming services but they still have not released a streamer.

@mblssmp2 thx. I had a look into the players from Accuphase. Budget wise the 430 or wait a bit longer and go for 560? I have no sacd at this moment. I do not listen very often to classical music. A little bit to opera but very commercial eg Caruso nesun dorma etc

Accuphase does not have any streamers in their programme.
dCS Bartok is streamer and DAC in one box.

@meltemi thx yes I know, still in doubt going full streaming or back to cd playing.
Didn’t had the change to really compare the 2 which is better?

I would say the E650 deserves the DP-560. Don't worry about SACDs. This is not really the main point about the DP-560. I also only have very few SACDs as I buy CDs based on how good the interpretation is and not if it is SACD or not. I first intended to buy the DP-430, which is of course also an excellent CD player but then I compared it to the DP-560 and decided to wait 6 months to save up for longer. During that time I only had the MELCO streamer and a Chord Mojo DAC, which I had once bought for when I am on the road. When the DP-560 arrived I thought I might sometimes use the MELCO connected to the DP-560 for streaming music I had purchased through download, but even the high res files played in this way did not give me the same pleasure as listening to the same album on CD. So now the MELCO is just used for TIDAL, which is a complete overkill and not used much.

I'm doing something similar. I ordered a DP-430 for my CD collection that has been sitting in boxes. I will also use it as a DAC to stream Roon. Keep mind if you do go with a 430 or 560, you will still need to stream to it via a computer or other streamer. In my case I have a Roon ready streamer handling these duties.

@paltomare thx for reply. Did you compared 430 vs 560?

No, I do not have a local dealer with both units to demo. Regardless, I don't have any SACDs nor the budget for a 560, both my Accuphase and McIntosh systems are recently purchased so I'm out of funds for a while.

I also plan to run a separate DAC from my streamer which I will upgrade/replace as DAC technology evolves. The 430 will let me enjoy my currenty CDs and the occasional new one.

Thx everyone for the reply. I will start new thread dp430 vs dp560.

Dac-50
 

Sorry for taking this back to the original question - I do own a DAC40, DAC50 and DC37. Yes, the DC37 is a brilliant DAC with more resolution, more separation and really heart stopping on classical music. However, the DAC 40 and 50 are really excellent, great value, no need for an interconnect. And on some music they perform at close to the same level and still excellent. I would say the DAC options perform at a 4K DAC level and I would guess also at the same level as the 430.

So if you don’t care for CDs and prefer running from stored files (preferred and better than CD or Tidal) the DAC 50 is a great option. If you run streaming the DAC 50 would still be the best option.

Here is a list of DAC chips used in some Accuphase gear:

DAC-50 AK4490EQ 2ch 2x2 parallel (2 chips)
DP-430 AK4490EQ 2ch 2x4 parallel (4 chips)
DC-901 ES9018 8ch 2x16 parallel (4 chips)
DP-720 ES9018 8ch 2x8 parallel (2 chips)
DP-560 ES9018S 8ch 2x4 parallel (1 chip)
DC-37 ES9018S 8ch 2x8 parallel (2 chips)
DP-950 ES9038PRO 8ch 2x8 parallel (2 chips)
DP-750 ES9028PRO 8ch 2x8 parallel (2 chips)

And

DAC-40 TI PCM1796DB

@meltemi an restock thx for the reply. This was the kind of info I was after.

@pjetrof - my cents
I have just completed my Accuphase integrated with a DAC-50 and a AD-50. To finish the digital side of my system I'm going for either "budget" streamer like the Primare NP5/Project S2 Ultra or a bit higher up the chain with a Lumin U1 Mini.
My dealer says that Lumin is a good partner for non-roon system with the dac-50.

Note that I'm not in the slightest interested in a CD-player or owning digital files but pure streaming.

Good luck!

I have a NP5 on order and hope to have it before the end of the month. I'll be using it with an E270 and Heed Abacus DAC but have thought it would be nice to do away with an extra box and go with a DAC-50 or a future DAC-xx.

Froddan... Welcome to AA! :wave:

To all. For the moment I m playing with Accuphase e650 and Harbeth 40.2
Cables I want to use is the shunyata venom series. Just in doubt which Dac/streamer.
That was the plan. I love Accuphase gear. Therefore dac from Accuphase but which one would be the right one for my system?
Dac 50 ? Dc 37 I think new is going to come. Or a dp560 and start playing cd s again? While I’m very happy with streaming tidal or Qobuz even Spotify. So to the more experienced under us, is the Dac 50 a fullgrown Dac? Or is dc new one probably so much better in sound quality playing music from one of the streaming services?

At the cost of the DAC50 you can’t really go wrong and I think you would be able to live with for the long run.

I switch my system between analog or digital focused every couple of months. For digital I would use the DC37 exclusively; when I run the system primarily as analog, I bring out 2-3 turntables and because of space constraints, only use the DAC40 when listening to digital during those months. I never miss the DC 37 during those times and without direct comparison can easily enjoy the DAC40 or 50.

If getting the most out of your CD's is important to you, I'd suggest getting the best Accuphase player you can afford and connect the internal DAC to a streamer, you won't be disappointed. The DC-37 is 5 years old, it's probably inline for a replacement soon.
In my case, I stream local and online 80% of the time, vinyl 10% and CDs 10%. I went with the lower end DP430 and use the internal DAC for streaming until the DC-37 replacement becomes available. At that time (assuming I can afford the replacement) I'll use the the 430 as a CD transport only and use the new DAC for streaming and CD playback. If CD playback is not important, I'd go for the DAC50, and hold out for a DC-37 replacement. Just my 2 cents.

I’ve recently upgraded DAC40 to DAC50 on my e-470 and I must say that 50 sounds very different from 40. I like 50 much better especially playing DSD. As a streamer I use Sonore ultraRendu powered by UltraCap LPS-1. My music server is a dedicated custom built fan-less server hosting Roon server and running on optimized windows server OS. The result is very satisfying when streaming both the local files stored on QNAP NAS and Tidal using Roon software and streaming music to UR running as Roon end point.

How long have you had the DAC-50? If should improve further with time.

I have it for about 3 months now. Yes, the sound smoothed out a bit. But it was good right from the beginning.
There’s a couple of observations:

1. DAC50 is less noisy (almost quiet) on USB compared to 40
2. If you want the best performance from DAC50 do not connect it directly to your computer using USB but use a dedicated streamer like SOTM or UltraRendu etc. the result is much better.
3. Use the best and the shortest USB cable when connecting to the streamer. I use a very short Curious USB cable and the result is very good.

Happy listening 👂

Sounds like a decent DAC for the money! Minimal wire too :thumbsup:

I have compared the DAC-50 in an E-470 to a DC-901 -> E-470 to a PS Audio Direct Stream Junior -> E-470.

o The DAC-50 is considerably cheaper than the other two.
o The DC-901 is by far the best of the lot compared here.
o The DAC-50 was in my opinion on par with the PS Audio DSJ though they were very different sounds. For some recordings I preferred the DSJ and for others the DAC-50. The DSJ would have been at least double the price of the DAC-50.

All DAC's were being fed directly from a mac mini and JRiver via FLAC files.

The DAC-50 is a great way to get into an Accuphase DAC and having an all in one box solution certainly has its benefits particularly if space for your gear is a premium.

Cheers

I wonder if the better power supply in the E-650 or E-800 will elevate the performance of the DAC-50 further.

I like the DAC-10 so much in my first Accuphase unit(CX-260), that i now want to sell my Denafrips Ares II r2r DAC and invest in either the DAC-50 or the DC-81. HTPC lossless files as my only transport, but will get a streamer in the next few years.

DAC-50 does dsd which is cool. I've had a Tube modded Oppo 105d for demo and it sounded great with all music upsampled to dsd. The Denafrips Ares II sounds lean and dull with dsd. Sounds better NOS PCM. Does the DAC-50 upsample PCM to DSD very well? DSD+price point are it's two big selling points. Negative? I suppose price point for a small board and resale value likely being weak.

DC-81 is from 1986 but it looks overbuilt to the max. I really want a DC-91 but they're out of my price range while i still look for an Accuphase power amp(Currently using McIntosh MC202). I had the opportunity to demo an Audio Note 0.1x DAC which also is only redbook playback. It sounded great and while downsampling my higher resolution and dsd files sounded worse, i have no problem seeking out 16/44 redbook albums to replace the higher resolution. 16/44 playback is fine, but my mind will often be tempted by "newness" in DSD and higher resolution PCM.
Is the DC-81 still a great DAC at their used price point by 2021 standards? Will a recap be a PINTA and expensive? Will a recap even be necessary?

Would either the DC-81 or DAC-50 benefit from a DDC usb to spidf converter and external clock such as the Denafrips Gaia/Hermes/Iris?

Last question: What makes such a small PC board DAC sound so good? Is it using the Accuphase preamp's built in power supply to aid in its sound? I'm just very impressed by such a small package. How is it able to compete with dedicated DACs much more expensive and overbuilt? The DAC 0.1x from Audio Note sounded more musical in the mid range. A touch more lush vs my DAC-10. The older DAC-10 held its own so well and now i'm curious what a jump to the newer DAC-50 or a separate and dedicated Accuphase DAC can do!

DAC-50 is a no brainer, seemingly compatible with your CX-260.

I still own a DP-80L / DC-81L combo (since 1989). The DC-81 and the DC-81L can only do 16bit (no 24bit) and only 44k and 48k (no higher sample rates).
From 2001 I continued to use the transport, but the the DAC was replaced by professional dCS Upsampler and DAC.
The dCS units sonically outperformed all Accuphase DACs up to DC-800 / DP-700 and are, (with slight sonic differences) just on par with DC-901.

No.

Depends on the clock quality of the source.
I'd suggest Mutec MC3+ USB for reclocking USB (and converting to SPDIF).
But DSD would be downsampled to PCM.

DC-50 is derived from the DAC built into DP-430.
And: an Accuphase is an Accuphase is an Accuphase.

A jump up in sound quality. The DC-50 is technically and sonically up to date.
Separate and dedicated Accuphase DACs are more laborious, but the prices are considerably higher.
And older models are unfortunately technically (and often sonically, depending on what you compare them with) not up to date any more.
Basically the sound of every new Accuphase model is better than the one of its predecessor.

I appreciate your response. I have not heard any Accuphase before blindly buying this immaculate CX-260 with the AD-10 and DAC-10 option boards. I don't think i'll ever afford the upwards of $10k Accuphase offerings so i'll be a decade or more behind in the used market. I'd imagine you're coming from the experience of jumping up in new units nearly every release. A DC-81 or DC-91 or DC-61 would be a very new and different experience for me. I also wonder how much of their sound is now veiled by out of spec capacitors?
The Audio Note dac i mentioned is only 16/48 and still popular and jumped up in price. I'm inclined to believe you when you say Accuphase DACs improve with every new one because the little DAC-10 holds its own against the AN 0.1x and the Ares II. It still has a slight digital glare which is why i now lean toward r2r dacs. There just isn't much info about the DAC-50. One guy through web search speaks of its sibilance and harshness. 2 major things i don't want to hear associated with a DAC. Then there's that resale money. I'll likely be eating the cost and i typically like to buy what i can make my own money back in resale, ie McIntosh.
Are the DAC-50 available on ebay legitimate?

I probably wouldn't consider older DACs i wouldn't have been able to afford back then if i wasn't so impressed with modern R2R dacs. I take it you're not a fan of the popular non over sampling r2r dacs that can play all resolutions including dsd?

Thanks again for your opinion and perspective

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the DAC-50. Considering the value for selling the Ares II + the DAC-10 if it would even sell. I think it's a good deal! Now the long wait shipping from Japan.

I purchased a used unit, with original box and manual and cd, so no burn in time. The one reviewed who said it was very sibilant and harsh later said it was great after burn in-but he did end up getting a different dac anyway. I think in terms of my system build priority, the DAC-50 will hold me over nicely, while i search for a better power amp, and then at a later time, i can revisit a dedicated dac.

Thanks again.