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My six favourite DACs in 2023

  • Whenever I am asked about the best loudspeakers, amplifiers or DACs, I always reply with “Best for whom?”. We all have different needs, different tastes, different financial circumstances and – this is often overlooked – different priorities when spending our disposable income. So in selecting some of the “best” DACs that I’ve experienced in the past five years, I reframed them as favourites. Of course, my favourites might not be your favourites!

    In this video, I run through six of my favourite DACs in 2023. And six means that this list, by definition, is not exhaustive. My selections are based on wanting to provide options at a range of price points and because we will be talking about only half a dozen DACs (and not one) the video is a surface skim and not a deep dive. More importantly, the DACs discussed in this video a) I have reviewed before and b) I continue to use them — which means that all of the b-roll is freshly shot by Olaf. And a word of advice: make sure you watch the video all the way to the very end.

    🎥 Camera: John Darko / Olaf von Voss
    🎬 Editor: John Darko
    🌈 Colour: Olaf von Voss
    🕺🏻 Motion GFX: John Darko
    💰 Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan

    🎵 Song IDs? Playlists of all music heard in this video – and other videos – can be found on PATREON: http://www.patreon.com/johndarko


    👉 Further information…

    Topping D10s video review
    📺 https://darko.audio/2020/11/topping-d10s-video-review/

    Chord Mojo 2 video ‘review’
    📺 https://darko.audio/2022/12/the-chord-mojo-2-is-2022s-best-dac-and-heres-why/

    Denafrips Ares II video review
    📺 https://darko.audio/2021/06/denafrips-ares-ii-video-review/

    Chord Hugo 2 video review
    📺 https://darko.audio/2020/04/chord-2go-hugo-2-video-review/

    Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 video review
    📺 https://darko.audio/2023/05/lyngdorf-tdai-3400-cd-2-video-review/

    Mola Mola Tambaqui video review
    📺 https://darko.audio/2020/08/mola-mola-tambaqui-video-review/

    Room treatment by Vicoustic
    📖 http://vicoustic.com/

    👉 Shopping…

    Topping D10s
    🛒 http://amzn.to/44UKr1v

    Chord Mojo 2
    🛒 http://www.audioadvice.com/chord-mojo2-dac-headphone-amp?referral=darko

    Chord Hugo 2
    🛒 http://www.audioadvice.com/chord-hugo-2?referral=darko

    Cables and power products by AudioQuest
    🛒 http://howl.me/ckbW8ZBoZAg

    Hi-fi furniture and speaker stands by Solid Steel
    🛒 http://howl.me/ckbW9947Hdi

    Darko.Audio may earn a small commission from items purchased via affiliate links, which are indicated with a ‘🛒’.

    Written by John Darko

    John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.

    Follow John on YouTube or Instagram

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