TOP DAPS
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The various Digital Audio Processors (DAPS) listed below are our subjective picks for the top DAPS in the world, based upon our reviews. That said, the list is a dynamic list and as we review new DAPS that we feel deserve a spot on the list, the list and the ranking will change to accommodate the new DAP. Things do change.
1.
ASTELL&KERN SE180
A DAP that travels and that does not leave one yearning for one’s home-based desktop or even one’s HiFi system! I would have thought the SE180 the Astell&Kern TOTL DAP when judged by its abilities, but it is not. Are those above it that good? Or does the employment of new technologies in the SE180—TERATON ALPHA Audio Technology and Astell&Kern’s Next Generation AMP Technology—push it beyond them? MSRP $1,499
The Shanling M8’s many features, its voice and outstanding musicality, its transparency, its build quality, design, and its ability to bring forward enough power to drive the oBravo RA-C-CU (93dB, 182Ω), are astonishing! Perhaps it is, after all, a desktop system or component misnamed or masquerading as a DAP. MSRP $1,659
The Cayin N6ii/A01 ($1,199) beautifully tuned and well executed in a clean, intuitive, industrial design is one such product. The Cayin N6ii renders music in a way that unites the best of the past with the best of the now and this is no easy task. And its contradiction is wondrous, analog musicality with irrepressible transparency. MSRP $1,199
Suffice to say, that the iBASSO DX220 with AMP1 Mk II fell beautifully into our “Wheelhouse,” as a very musical, incredibly transparent, addictively engaging, and quiet beyond measure DAP. Further, it is a sound staging champion. And it brings the juice (power) necessary, particularly, in balanced use, to drive all but the clinically and morbidly inefficient.
5.
ASTELL&KERN SE25
The Astell&Kern SR25 provides superb transparency, musical engagement, exceptional bass and treble extension, and 21 hours of playback! It is genre agnostic and it will scale beautifully with higher priced IEMs. The SR25 does this in a small, avant-garde form, for a fraction of the price of a number of top of the line DAPs. MSRP $699