Review: Yulong D100 DAC/amp - reference quality with a reasonable price - Page 2

wow! nice review project86 :) This sounds like quite the bang for your buck and I'm pretty surprised at your findings esp when the others go for much more money than the Yulong D100.

Yulong,just like little dot, is popular among audiphiles. It doesn't have a english website which becomes its shortage.had owned yulong's little amp which was very impresive, althought it costed me less than 150$ but sounded quite good. Really appreciate project86 for giving such a great review. It took me few days to read though :)

Excellent and very thorough review Project86! This Yulong D100 DAC/amp seems like an excellent DAC/Amp for something being sold under $500.

Excellent write up Project86.I'm looking to upgrade my d10 cobra,now this is on top of my list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by project86 

OK, this isn't much, but it's all I had time for: I recently visited a friend's house who happens to own a Dac Magic. I didn't know I would have a chance to listen, but the opportunity presented itself. He has gear that I am not familiar with, so I didn't use it, but thankfully I had my own little portable setup on hand: QLS QA-350 solid state player, Leckerton UHA-6S amp, and Westone UM3X. Not the absolute best gear in the world, but a very nice combo in my opinion, and sufficient for detecting differences. I prefer the Linear Phase mode on the Cambridge, and although the difference between the 3 modes are small, they are more noticeable than with the "sound mode" option on the Yulong.

 

Overall I felt that the Cambridge had a very pleasing sound. It was smooth and slightly warm with nice detail retrieval. I didn't find it too bright at all, which is a complaint I have read. If I hadn't spent a lot of time with the Yulong, Lavry, and other high end units, I might think this was about as good as digital audio can get. Very impressive.

 

But since I have spent time with the Yulong, I know that it has a bit more detail and control, especially in the bass region. The highs also seem just slightly smoother and more natural. Soundstage had more depth and spatial realism. Another big difference might be when using the USB input, since the Cambridge limits you to 48kHz if I remember correctly. Hi-Res audio with the Yulong is heavenly.

 

The Cambridge is still a fantastic unit though. I like all the input, output, and filter options they give you, and the build quality is nice too. It gets you most of the way there as far as sound quality compared to the others, and does so at a pretty good price (especially on the used market). If you already had one, I'm not sure it would be worth bothering with an upgrade, unless you are obsessing over that last 5-10% of performance. If you are just deciding though, I'd suggest the Yulong instead.

Gosh. I just realised I missed your reply on this. My apologies and appreciation for getting back on the DacMagic. I definitely want something that has several inputs and is future proof.

On a side note, the new DAC by Matrix is out and it's a combo unit as well with a better amp apparently. Coolfungadget posted a topic on it, but it got taken away, presumably because he does not have MOT status. It's called the Matrix "Cube" dac. I really have no clue what I will end up plunging into at the end of the day. I've been thinking about the Audio-GD range as well, but now that university has started, I won't have as much time scouring everything to see what there is.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by project86 

I saw the "Cube", looks good, I'm going to see about picking one up. You really can't go wrong these days, there are so many great options.

 

The D100 has plenty of inputs for me, and I can't imagine needing more, but I like the fact that the DacMagic gives a choice of optical or coaxial for each seperate input.
 

Agreed, but I definitely won't want to fiddle around with too many in the sense that financially, I can't cope with testing and then selling till I find the right one. I guess I'm looking for the best option and hopefully, one that will be future proof for a bit as I really don't think my next upgrade will be that soon. It's hard to know which would end up being the best I suppose, but a good/hi-res usb will end up being important I guess.

There are just so many competing products coming out now and also at lower and more competitive rates than it once was. I'm certainly happy with that, though it makes deciding just that much more difficult unfortunately.

Thanks for the review, it was a great read.

Putting this DAC to my list of potential purchases.

IIRC coolfungadget was looking for a reviewer in the now-deleted Matrix CUBE thread, I think you should contact him and try to arrange something. I'd love to hear how it stacks up to the gear you compared in this review.

Looks like it's time to upgrade my DAC, this looks like a steal for 350€ without shipping! Much appreciated your review, was fun and interesting to read through.

Interesting reading. I'm looking to get my first ever DAC in the near-future and was looking at options other than the DACMagic in the <$500 price range, given I'm from the UK so it's very easy to get hold of, and is good bang for buck. I was a bit concerned with various stories of build-quality, having to replace the PSU e.t.c, and couldn't find many alternatives in that £2-300 bracket.

My intended set up would be a Mac Mini (using my TV as a monitor if needed and the iPhone Remote app to control iTunes, with the music being stored on a NAS device) - DAC - stereo amp - speakers. Pretty straightforward and wouldn't require a whole lot of inputs. A decent headphone amp in either the DAC or amp would have been a bonus given I can't blare music out around 10-15% of the time I'm listening to it, so it's good to know the Yulong could do the job there. This looks tempting and will certainly go on the list of potentials. I see it's available either via eBay UK or  AudiophileChina.com for similar prices... anyway, look forward to seein more impressions.

I'm curious about the 1704 - it's only a bit more expensive - about $550, and appears to be a possible alternative to the audio-gd DAC19+C2 combo for $950 or so that uses some similar parts.  I wouldn't expect it would be as good, but then it's almost half the price.  

http://www.audiophilechina.com/cp-show.asp?C_id=173&S_id2=37&s_id=38

Any experience with the 1704 DAC, project?  It's supposed to be Yulong's best.

Yeah, I'd like some input on that as well, especially since I was about to order a D100.