If you were to pick one Dac under $300 ....

Something with Philips TDA1541 Crown dacs. For starters:

Musical Fidelity Digilog.
Arcam Black Box 1
Original Meridian 203

All come up resonably often on ebay and in classifieds and all under £150.

 

Ok, I have a few six-packs of Heiniken Keg, Coronas and Budweiser in my fridge ...my wife have a cutting knive in her hands and it's looking at me like " cheat on me and you got no cojones"...... .. I better buy a DAC instead!!! Nice try Bottleneck

Jose.

 

Sounds good...

Thanks,

Jose.

 

If you really want a DAC, I'd reccomend what I've got which is a CAL alpha valve dac.

I bought it on Audiogon for under $400 US dollars.

It makes most cd players I hear sound mechanical and wooden in presentation - including some expensive ones.

Valves aren't for everyone, but they are for me

this one is sold, but they do come up:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1163107201

 

Jose, You just answered your own question - get a nos dac and run it off an sla battery.

$300 IS about £150 but if you are buying in $$$ and don't have to pay import duty & vat like we do in UK you can buy a lot more for your money.

Apart from the Derek Shek, look at Monica 2 form diyparadise.com

I think the Scott Nixon may be more money but you could have a look at that too.

I don't think you will be disappointed by any of these though I only have the Monica.

Good luck