DAC within 600$ - which one?

Go for a DAC 19-DSP if you can find one...

It's a very resolving unit, very good extension both in bass and highs, not sharp at all, sounding very natural, not cold or clinical, very analogical...

The power supply and the general design is a league upper both the Music Hall and Paradisea 3, if you can, give try to the DAC 19, i'm sure it has serious arguments :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vandal 

OK, so I have another option, thanks cheaphifi. I also see a non-DSP version for 480$. This is more to my liking price wise. What would I be missing out on?

Also, they have a Sabre-DAC based offering, the NFB-11 going for 260$ (promo). Would that be better than the DAC-19?

 

I only own a DAC 19-DSP, i don't really know if the NFB-11 is better, and for now, there's a little problem with all the Sabre-DAC based gears using USB, Audio-GD and other brands are working hard to fix this, but for the moment i wouldn't advice a NFB-11, but there are a bunch of other models from Audio-GD, NFB-2 seems to be a very good alternative...

Just read reviews and feedback here... but IMO with Audio-GD it hard to go wrong !
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vandal 

Thanks, mailed Kingwa about the DAC-19. And it seems the PCM 1704 chips are nearly out of stock, so that's goodbye to DAC-19 after this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by neopac 

This forum is heavy audio-gd biased (nothing wrong with that if you know it)... but also have a look at the eastern electric minimax dac ... i used to have the music hall 25.2 dac (who should be similar to the 25.3 except the usb section) and the ee is a different league.

neopac

Call this as you want but for me i'm not biased, you just have to look at the conception of the devices, just look inside of both units : EE Minimax and Music Hall 25.2, and after take a look inside of the DAC-19 DSP, which unit has the better PSU path, Signal Path, Which device use discrete conception ? (it's far better than tube-buffer)...

IMO DAC-19 DSP is in a upper league than the two others devices...

statements like this are normaly about Xbox vs. Playstation and directly show if someone is objective or not ... it´s fun that matters in case of the paddle ... it´s the sound it delivers in case of the DAC. Nothing else. 

Im pretty curious to hear a Audio-gd DAC and i´m sure i´ll give it a try someday. Count the threads about Audio-gd in this subsection and you´ll know what i ment with biased ... just wanted to inspire someone to look beyond the edge of the plate.

neopac

The dac19 aims at a more faithful sound, if you don't mind bad cd's or bad music sounding bad then I would suggest it, just keep in mind it's the kind of sound that you appreciate over the long term and not be impressed by in the short term. If you want something that makes the music more enjoyable and upfront than should be, I would suggest one of audio-gd's lower tier dac's with the wm8741 dac chip. I still consider their lower tier gear revealing, but still more forgiving of recording, music, and gear matching than their higher tier gear.

One of the first things that I thought when I first listened to the ad1852 dac chip sparrow, was that audio-gd's entry level gear had crossed the threshold of musicality into being unforgivingly neutral, and that whenever possible you should choose lossless over 320kbps. I have experimented with some high bitrate lossy compressions, and with the fun/sparrow predecessor the compass, it was acceptable, just occasional weird mistakes. But with the sparrow... the fullness that is on GOOD recordings, will be made repetitively jagged and hollow by 320kbps. So imo, audio-gd's current entry level gear ain't exactly forgiving anymore, and I might discourage people from buying it unless they are aware that the sparrow/fun have a few revealing characteristics you get from really high tier gear.

By bad cd, I mean the sparrow/fun are good enough to present soundstage and positioning with decent coherency and continuity, albeit not with as much depth as higher tier audio-gd gear. If the positioning of mic or mastering is particularly bad on a recording, it will be heard continuously. If the music is heavily compressed like modern pop albums, it will fatigue you. If you listen to fatiguing music like heavy metal, it will sound fatiguing, somewhat aggravated because although the sparrow has the energy and macrotransients of higher tier audio-gd gear, it doesn't have quite the same level of microdetail transients, timbre or soundstage depth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vandal 

So it seems the debate is accurate VS forgiving here. This is an old debate

 

Look, I'm primarily a PC/MAC listener, and when not, I'm plugged in to an iPod Touch. The idea of a CD player is interesting, but, at the end of the day, I can't be bothered by changing CDs and such. I buy CDs mainly cause I like to collect, and feel like I'm paying back for all the music pleasure I get. It's likely huge increments in sound will change my mind, though, so am not closed to a possible change. Right now, I have a lot of MP3's, around 60 per cent of my collection of some 50 CDs, and other music is MP3, the other 40 per cent would be FLAC.

 

That being said, I'd like something fairly neutral. If it's any help, I plan on a WA 6SE after a bit of saving up. My headphones will be the RS1i and I plan to sell of the other three (D7000, A900 and SR225) and buy me a T1.

 

Just want my first choice to be spot on, and sadly, in India, I cannot audition any of this gear.

 

If i were you i would buy a DAC 19-DSP and i'll be quick...

Read this test : http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/483899/review-of-the-audio-gd-dac-19-dsp-c2-amp-the-acss-connection

But read fast... because the lasts DAC 19-DSP are solding right now...