DR.DAC2 - Amp / DAC / Preamp - Review - Page 3

well it's hard to say cuz i havn't tested compass - although i know one thingie

dr dac for its price is great bang for buck - it has opamping feature, coax optical and usb - thanks to that [usb] i couldn't hear any hiss from my dyimod or my pc. besides it is quite small and well built - full metal box does its work well. not to mention it has fallen down from 1 meter desk couple times and it went without a scratch i can only honestly say - go for it

Once I get this I will review it in headphone amps / source components forums. It will get more attention and maybe find who else owns these there.

Bumping this thread. You ever get to compare the two DACs?

Never got a chance to. Money got tight and since the Compass was on its way (still not here) I had to sell the Dr Dac.

Hey folks, I tested out the Dr.DAC 2DX at Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku, here in Japan. It was connected to an Onkyo ND-S1 digital iPod dock, via optical line out. I used my iPod Touch 2G and the Audio Technica AHT-CK100 I had with me. Just like how everyone described it, the soundstage was great, and everything sounded great. One thing I did notice is that there was a constant hiss from the low gain headphone jack. I am not sure if it is the noisy electronic environment at Yodobashi, or if it was just picking up some kind of interference through the anti-theft system that it was connected to, but the hiss could be heard through out the volume range. I am hoping that it was a defective unit... but its a pretty big risk to take since the price at Yodobashi is close to $500, and through Amazon Japan, its close to $400.

I was planning on ordering the DAC2 DX today, but now I read all kinds of things about this hiss... whats that all about?

I will be using both the analog in and outputs to wire it to my soundcard and studio monitors and I will be using the low impedance gain headphone out only for my Ultrasone HFI-780 and/or Denon AH-C751... will I be getting hiss aswell? Or does that only occur when using the high impedance headphone out?

 

Please help me out with this, I'm on the verge of purchasing one now, but I dont want to have any regrets afterwards because of constant hiss or something :P

 

Thanks in advance.

Scrivs, I don't think you have to worry about hiss.  I actually bought it, and I am using it with my CK100, and there is no hiss.  It must have been the electrically dirty environment at Yodobashi that caused the hiss.  I am using with my Win7 machine via USB, and it is OK. 

 

In your case, I think a dedicated amp might be better than a DAC/Amp combo, since you will be using the analog input and outputs only.  The strength of the Dr.DAC comes into play when you use the DAC.

Looks good except for USB - where's firewire? for semi-audiophile/ semi-pro uses, it is useless. 

Ah alright, thanks for you reply. I'm glad that I dont have to worry about hiss then.

 

But what do you mean by that last sentence? Do you mean that when it is plugged in with the analog in- and outputs the DAC wont be used? And that it will only serve as a headphone amp in this case once I plug my headphone in?

Though tell me if I'm wrong with that :p But I was defenitely planning on using the DAC for my monitors... the in built headphone amp is just an extra that will come to use.

I chose the Dr. DAC2 DX primarily because I still wanted a DAC for my speaker system and because I was also thinking about getting a headphone amp I thought a DAC/Amp combo would be a wise decision and would save me some money.

(I know ofcourse that this in-built amp isnt as good as stand-alone headphone amp, but because it comes with the DAC I take that for granted).

 

Edit: Initialy I was planning on plugging the Dr DAC2 DX to my soundcard via the analog line-in and then plug my subwoofer into the analog line out of the device (my monitors are plugged into my woofer using XLR cables). By this I thought that the DAC was still being used to improve the sound quality that is coming out of my monitors. And then when using my headphone I would just plug it into the headphone out to use the device as a headphone amp.

But this is incorrect if I understand what you said correctly?

 

Should I then hook the device up to my computer using the USB input and then plug the my woofer into the analog line out? Will the DAC be in use if I hook everything up this way?

Please let me know because I'm about to receive the dr. dac2 dx in a few days from now :P

 

Thanks for your help.

Edited by Scrivs - 6/8/10 at 8:39am