The Pre Box S2 Digital offers audiophiles a very high-value DAC/digital preamp at an almost ridiculously low price. Not only does it include a plethora of important features and capabilities; it also sounds good, has an elegantly designed control surface, and is expandable. As an audiophile’s needs grow, Pro-Ject micro-systems have the components to support nearly every potential input source and format available through various accessory units designed to perform specific functions. While not quite bespoke audio, the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 is one small part of an elegant system that gives even audiophiles with limited means a way to assemble a first-class system. One of TAS’ 2018 DACs of the Year. SS, 289

NAD’s C 658 offers many features and functions in an affordable and good-sounding package. This streaming DAC, operated via the BluOS app or remote control, has a phonostage, analog inputs, subwoofer outputs with configurable crossover, full analog and digital preamplifier functions, and Dirac Live DSP room correction. This last feature can greatly improve the sound, particularly in problematic listening rooms. The C 658’s sound is excellent, with tuneful bass and a spacious soundstage. RH, 313

This “Swiss army knife” packs a streamer, DAC, mm phono preamp, control preamp, power amp, headphone amp, and Dirac room correction into a compact package at a very reasonable price. Just add speakers to this “amplifier,” and you have all you need for a complete stereo system. It also has HDMI eARC, meaning that your stereo can provide the sound for TV and movies. The amp offers 130Wpc into 4 or 8 ohms, so many users will have adequate power. The amp is built around Hypex UcD modules, the brainchild of Class D master-designer Bruno Putzeys. BluOS supports all the major streaming services, but especially Qobuz and Tidal which offer real hi-res recordings. The big thing here is the Dirac room correction. Your room is always a source of distortions, and Dirac does very-high-level math corrections to address these in the bass region, though for another $100 you can get full-frequency correction. Doing room correction is very hard, but we found that Dirac generally succeeds, especially if you have a difficult room that doesn’t have extensive passive acoustic treatment. We found that the amp itself sounded clear and powerful. Of course, at higher price points you can get higher performance or different performance, but we think the C 389 is a great place to start, and you might find it is all you ever need. TAS YouTube

The Gold Note DS-10 /PSU-10 EVO combination can produce reference-level sonics. It has Ethernet, WiFi, a true all-analog signal chain, and 192 different filter settings. If you bypass all the flavorings, the DS-10 sound is neutral, which is a good place to start. When you factor in the dedicated remote and headphone capabilities as well as Roon and MQA compatibility, you have a component that does everything that a current-generation DAC/Preamplifier needs to do, and it does it well. SS, 319

The STR preamplifier delivers on two high-end electronics parameters at which Anthem has always excelled, the user interface and DSP room correction. Navigation of the STR’s layers of operational menus, displayed on a readable-from-across-the room, thin-film-resistor display, is intuitive and readily mastered. The latest (Genesis) version of ARC gives the user an almost limitless capacity to address quirks of real-life listening environments, the software employing two dozen IIR filters per channel and operating at 192kHz. A premium AKM DAC chip performs both 32-bit/384kHz PCM as well as 2.8 and 5.6MHz DSD processing. There’s a phonostage with four selectable equalization curves other than the standard RIAA, and the preamp has an analog bypass option. AQ, 298

The Rose RS150B could be the “Swiss Army knife” of streaming DACs, with integral streaming support, MQA decoding, Roon Ready certification, a pair of analog input jacks with variable output level, and compatibility with DSD all the way up to DSD512. The build-quality is extraordinary with a chassis machined from a solid aluminum block. But the Rose’s most important quality is the sound it achieves from the latest ESS Sabre ES9038PRO. Never before has RB experienced this level of sonic quality from a streaming source. RB, 322

For its 50th anniversary, Cambridge Audio didn’t go the conservative route with the Edge NQ network preamplifier. An analog preamplifier with built-in network player and DAC, the NQ is the place to connect all the connected aspects of your musical life. The triumph here is in the simplicity and reliability of the hardware and software integration. Switching among YouTube-sourced music videos on the iPad, Chromecasted Qobuz streamed music, or computer playback of music files from a NAS is embarrassingly easy and immediate to execute. When he reviewed it together with the Edge W power amplifier, AM found the best pure audio performance to be had through the NQ’s analog preamplifier or DAC inputs. The sonic result (given all the complexity inside the beautiful box) is unexpectedly hear-through, making exploration of the ever-expanding world of musical possibilities…better. AM, 301