2023 Editors’ Choice: Best DACs $3,000 – $10,000

With sweet, accurate midrange sonics and sturdy construction that should last a long time, this mid-priced tube DAC has a stout tube-rectified power supply for each channel. While that’s unusual for a DAC, it assures dynamic range will be wide and dynamic shifts lightning fast. Perhaps the EVO 100 is missing the very deepest lows and highest highs, but there’s not much else to quibble about. VF, 300

The goal of the BDA-3.14 was simple in theory, but more challenging in practice—to add a streaming function to the BDA-3 platform while retaining the same high sound quality as the BDA-3. Reviewer Steven Stone thinks Bryston’s efforts were successful. The DAC section for the BDA-3.14 is built around a pair of AK4490 chips, just like that of the BDA-3. Instead of building a server from scratch Bryston began with a Raspberry Pi 3 minicomputer as its Internet gateway device. Why a Pi? Because it works reliably and has excellent and continuing support from Pi. In short, the BDA-3.14 is a first-class component that could be the center of any high-performance digital audio system. SS, 309

Denafrips is best known for its own line of R-2R DACs, in which the Terminator currently sits second from the top, eclipsed only by the Terminator Plus. The Terminator handles PCM up to a sampling frequency of 384kHz, and DSD up to 11.2MHz (DSD256) in native mode. Both RCA and balanced XLR analog outputs are provided. The analog voltage signal is output directly without a buffer or gain stage, which puts the responsibility on the matching preamp to provide adequate gain and drive signal. Sonically, expect a tonally neutral and dynamic presentation. A true reference and currently DO’s favorite DAC. DO, 316

This ultra-tweaky tube based DAC from Poland features tubes in the audio circuit as well as in the power supply. The Baltic 3’s reproduction of timbre is exemplary, both with respect to accuracy and resolution of subtle harmonics. While it’s particularly strong at imaging and soundstaging and at resolving, layering, and spatially defining complex musical presentations (e.g. symphonies, bands, or complex recordings), it’s just as beguiling on recordings with minimal instruments or solo vocals. Reproduction across the frequency range is deep, wide, and full, from string bass or bass drums in the lower octaves to the extension and shimmer of cymbals and bells in the upper registers. While all these attributes are accurate in describing the Baltic 3, for a potential customer I think it’s more meaningful to say that it creates such immersive, beguiling, and engaging experiences. SSc, 323

Sometimes it’s good to start over from scratch when designing a new component. That’s what designer Ted Smith did—he started from the premise that DSD recordings sound good and built a DAC around that premise. PS Audio’s Paul McGowan heard a prototype, loved it, and agreed to build it. VF thought it was easily the best digital sound he’d heard, but the DAC needs lots—probably 500 hours—of break-in. VF, 245

The Hugo TT employs a proprietary and sophisticated “long-tap” digital filter that reportedly results in waveforms from standard-resolution sources as accurate as those of hi-res ones. The DAC section is also custom and supports PCM up to 768kHz and up to DSD512. The Hugo TT sounds superb on its own, but the performance is taken up several notches with the addition of the Hugo M scaler, which upsamples all incoming signals to 768kHz with an FPGA. The result truly represents a new way forward in digital audio—one where standard 16/44 material in every way sounds as good as (or better than) even the highest-resolution files. A technical and musical triumph. CM, 295