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Originally Posted by Golden Ears  I would also like to add my thanks to you for doing this review.
Sometimes I try to read threads that are 30 or 40 pages long, it is tiresome to see so many people making comments that do not give raw information about the product because it takes longer to find the information.
So here I am being hypocritical, and yet having another post, to thank you for what you did. I am so glad that both of you are members of this community, because otherwise it would be very hard for me to figure things out. Your exposure to some many products helps out greatly. In fact even the components that you do not praise as highly as others, probably sell in greater numbers just because people know what they are getting. These type of reviews helped drive all sales, not just the sales of the most expensive or best sounding units.
For instance that new $59 amplifier is going to be a gift I will buy for someone. Without your reviewing experience I would've had no interest in buying this item for myself -- or for others. And even though it is not the best sounding item you reviewed or even in the top 20%, I will still buy it because of your review.
It's just something that I think the manufacturers have to realize is to their benefit.
I also listened to the apogee Mini digital to analog converter, as well as to the apogee duet, but once again -- I'm not sure of my results, because likely I listen to a lower bit rate on your unit as opposed to the apogee duet.
Going into a store to test one against the other might not be conclusive because items need to be burned in before the listening results are valid.
That is why -- I now have to wait until I can get both burned in units in the same room at the same time with the same source. lol.... MEET #2!
When will that happen?
Thanks again to both of you, what you do is a great help for others and helps us spend our dollars faster. Ha ha ha ha -- keep it up!
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I did try to keep my Macbook on the lossless playlist most of the time at the 7/26/08 meet. But, that matters not because we both have done the work for you with comparing the
mini-DAC vs Duet. They are hard to distinguish from each other in terms of sound quality and sound signature, whether via line out to an amp or headphone out to headphones.
They each have unique features that separate them - with the extra digital inputs and outputs of the mini-DAC making up the doubling in the price:
1) The mini-DAC has optical, coax, USB and AES digital input, the Duet is firewire only.
2) The mini-DAC has balanced outputs, as well as 1/8" line out and 1/4" headphone out, while the Duet has a line-out umbilical and 1/4" headphone out (line out is with a plug used for active powered near field monitors).
3) The Duet also includes analog inputs and an analog to digital converter to act like a mini recording studio. You need to add the mini-me to the mini-DAC for that feature.
4) The mini-DAC can be used as a stand alone DAC/Preamp/headphone amp, the Duet requires a Mac computer.
5) The mini-DAC with firewire or USB is Windows compatible with the right firewire chip onboard, Duet is not.
6) However Duet Firewire is a 24/96 DAC and the mini-DAC usb is only a 16/44.1 DAC, but with upconversion so it sounds the same as the Duet firewire or mini-DAC optical.
7) mini-DAC is a 24/192 DAC with coax, and 24/96 with optical toslink
As a DAC feeding a desktop amp, I like these better than the Pico feeding a desktop amp, and I like the Duet just about as much as the mini-DAC. As a headphone amp with DAC I think they soundly beat the portables like the Pico. The Pico is better as a DAC than it is a headphone amp, to my ears.
