Member Reviews: HRT Music Streamer II High Resolution USB D/A Converter

I'm not really a fan of computer DACs and prefer full sized CD players mostly. I previously had a Nuforce Icon Mobile DAC and it's ok. I believe it's the same thing as the uDAC, but I might be wrong. It seemed to be a good match for only specific headphones and I did prefer it to the E7 by far. It's very good for bass and treble happy headphones. It's especially good for the M50 and D2000. Despite poor measurements it doesn't sound that bad.   Once I got my Q701 the first thing I wanted to do was get a good dac. Nothing overkill and something that's a good value for the money. I'm not so serious about music to need a $300+ DAC (yet). I actually figured there would be a very...

This was my first venture into computer audio.  It has excellent plug and play simplicity, very good, smooth and dynamic sound, pretty good detail and only a little rolled off up high.   If USB is all you need, and you're a noob...start here, you won't regret it.   I'm looking to upgrade to a DAC with Toslink and Digital coax inputs...if HRT made one, I'd give it a try!   Revised 11-26-2012:I'm reviewing the new OppoBDP-105 now and A-B'ing it against the MSII+Audirvana+ and I'll be darned if their sounds aren't EXTREEEEEEEMLY similar, the MSII might be a little overdoing some of the transients but they are equivalent in 97% of the situations...

[This review is based on the older triangular-shaped version of the Hrt Music Streamer II (shown in the picture)] The HRT Music Streamer II was my first external DAC purchase. I've been using it with my Behringer Truth B3030A near-field monitors since April and it really compliments them.   Before I bought the MS II, I was using a Creative Titanium Fatal1ty Pro PCI Express sound card. It got the job done and sounded pretty nice, but after a while I started craving for more detail in music. So after reading up on some reviews I ended up getting the MS II.   I can't compare the sound quality to +1000$ DAC's, never having owned one, but it's hard for me to imagine...