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Seperate DAC and AMP below 500$

post #1 of 12
1/26/10 at 8:42pm
Thread Starter 
I want to purchase a good desktop (I guess everything not portable is desktop?) DAC and AMP for my laptop and AD900 cans. So far I've been considering Firestone Audio Spitfire 24bit DAC (cause it has optical in) and Cute Beyond AMP. It'd be great to get any advice whether this rig would be good and if I should look somewhere else, for example at Little Dot stuff.

I've never owned either DAC or AMP, nor I have any friends with any knowledge about them, let alone having any (not many audiophiles out here).

So if anyone has a spare couple of minutes to write a few tips it'd be greatly appreciated.
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post #2 of 12
1/27/10 at 12:09am
Do you need optical in? You could always get the fantastic value for money Nuforce uDAC which has Coaxial in and USB in, RCA out. Are you looking for a tube amp (warm, smooth and fun), or a Solid State amp (detailed, energetic and accurate)? IMO $500 is overkill for the AD900 but if you upgrade in the future, at least you won't have to upgrade your gear for a while.
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post #3 of 12
1/27/10 at 12:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stang View Post
You could always get the fantastic value for money Nuforce uDAC which has Coaxial in and USB in, RCA out.
x2
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post #4 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:11am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by stang View Post
IMO $500 is overkill for the AD900 but if you upgrade in the future, at least you won't have to upgrade your gear for a while.
Which is what I thought. My aunt is in US now so I have a chance to order some gear without the need to pay huge shipping fees. So I'd rather get very good gear while I still have the chance and will the room for cans upgrade. I've never heard nor tube nor solid state amp so I cannot say for certain. I listen mainly to metal and rock, if it's of any relevance to the choice.

Another issue is that I cannot find any info about ASUS' laptops SPDIF out and whether it is optical and coaxial (some people say it's optical). And Nuforce uDac doesn't have optical in.
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post #5 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:16am
Coax and Optical look very different to each other, just look and see what yours is.

For example, Left is Coax, right is Optical

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post #6 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:25am
Thread Starter 
Those are Ins and they indeed look different. The digital out on the laptop is combined with HP out and looks just like a normal headphones port, just has s/pdif written near it.
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post #7 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:26am
In's out for digital, same looking Probably Line Out you are talking about.
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post #8 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by stang View Post
In's out for digital, same looking Probably Line Out you are talking about.
Does not compute
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post #9 of 12
1/27/10 at 8:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stang View Post
In's out for digital, same looking Probably Line Out you are talking about.
no, he is right, new (or not new) laptops come with this combo jack and it is capable of discerning (and switch automatically) whether it is an optical (mini format) or an usual 3.5" stereo cable. Laptops are rarely equipped with coaxial interface. But in any case, it will almost always use the spdif standard, so will most of dacs (no matter the interface). Don't bother to limitate yourself to optical dacs, there exist cheep (and good) coxial/optical converter for spdif signals.

cheers,

lao
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post #10 of 12
1/27/10 at 9:01am
lol k I got no idea about laptops so I will keep quiet now
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post #11 of 12
1/27/10 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
Ok, considering the feedback and udac impressions thread I think I'm gonna settle with this little miracle for now.
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post #12 of 12
1/27/10 at 3:07pm
And if your budget is $500, and you love the uDac sound, the HDP is around the corner for $400, based on the same architecture with a bigger HP amp, and a wider range of supported bit/freq combos.
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