I have a PPAv2 and Sennheiser HD580s, and I usually listen to music from my laptop, which has (I think) fairly generic built-in sound. (It's an HDA Intel STAC92xx chipset, in case that matters.) I was browsing here and ran across mention of a couple of different DACs, and I thought it might be time to upgrade to something other than my laptop's built-in DAC. The two DACs that caught my eye were the Bantam and the gamma-1.
I like DIY, and neither project intimidates me. From what I can tell, the Bantam runs around $35 for parts, and the γ1 is in the neighborhood of $100. I only have a USB output, so I don't need the other input options on the γ1. For each DAC, what kind of a difference will I notice (a) compared to the default headphone-out on my laptop, and (b) comparing the two DACs to each other? And finally, are there any other DACs I should consider? (Cheap is better, and over $100 is definitely out. $100 might be in my budget. [I'm a poor college student.
])
One other thing—I run Linux (Ubuntu 8.10). So it would be good to know if either of the above are incompatible with Linux. (I'll do some of my own research on that in the meantime, but certainly welcome any tips.)
I like DIY, and neither project intimidates me. From what I can tell, the Bantam runs around $35 for parts, and the γ1 is in the neighborhood of $100. I only have a USB output, so I don't need the other input options on the γ1. For each DAC, what kind of a difference will I notice (a) compared to the default headphone-out on my laptop, and (b) comparing the two DACs to each other? And finally, are there any other DACs I should consider? (Cheap is better, and over $100 is definitely out. $100 might be in my budget. [I'm a poor college student.
])One other thing—I run Linux (Ubuntu 8.10). So it would be good to know if either of the above are incompatible with Linux. (I'll do some of my own research on that in the meantime, but certainly welcome any tips.)
Just finished it a couple of days ago.
