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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: https://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
    📖 https://vicoustic.com/

    👉 Shopping…

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Written by John

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

    Darko.Audio is a member of EISA.

    Follow John on YouTube or Instagram

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