DAC Recommendations? - Page 2

Something to keep in mind when you're thinking of modding commercial options is that often it is the circuit and PCB design that limit the performance of the ICs and not the other way around.  This is especially true of audiophile equipment.  So consider the value of a design that comes from people with a strong knowledge of the electronics they're using and is scrutinized by a large community of knowledgeable people. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rds 

Something to keep in mind when you're thinking of modding commercial options is that often it is the circuit and PCB design that limit the performance of the ICs and not the other way around.  This is especially true of audiophile equipment.  So consider the value of a design that comes from people with a strong knowledge of the electronics they're using and is scrutinized by a large community of knowledgeable people. 

I know the headphone community has produced some amazing designs, but let me play devil's advocate for a second...isn't the design of commercial audiophile equipment also scrutinized by a lot of people - the company engineers - who happen to have credentials that a lot of members here, as knowledgeable as they may be, do not have? (Namely, advanced degrees in EE) I'm just failing to see why their committee-driven designs would be inferior to the headphone community's committee-driven designs, which seems to be what you're suggesting.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowpogo 

I know the headphone community has produced some amazing designs, but let me play devil's advocate for a second...isn't the design of commercial audiophile equipment also scrutinized by a lot of people - the company engineers - who happen to have credentials that a lot of members here, as knowledgeable as they may be, do not have? (Namely, advanced degrees in EE) I'm just failing to see why their committee-driven designs would be inferior to the headphone community's committee-driven designs, which seems to be what you're suggesting.
 

As someone who is currently graduate EE student my opinion is that the kind of circuit design used in audio amplifiers and DACs is just not the kind of stuff that requires a PhD.  We're not talking about new discoveries or cutting edge technology.  The design principles being used are very well understood and have been for many many years.

Good implementation is about following the "rules" - optimizing your layouts and component choices.  This is best done by a group of obsessive people (ie us DIYers). 

Also, remember that headphone audio companies are necessarily very small.  I doubt there are many with more than 2 employees who have an EE degreee.  How big can we expect the R@D department to be even at relatively large companies like headroom? 

On the other hand think of how many people are critiquing an AMB design during it's revisions (not here on headfi btw).

Another thing to consider is the designer's passion.  Here in DIY world it's all about passion and this leads to a very high standard of excellence.  Businesses always claim to be passionate, but it's a different environment - people are there primarily to earn a wage and/or make a profit.

Personally, the make or break for me is open source design.  In a hobby filled with grandiose claims, being able to see a schematic is required.  This is gives the user/builder the chance to evaluate the equipment's quality by some objective standard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by herro 

I'm soldered surface mount components for projects before, and let me tell you, it's not fun. I always do a great job with soldering, but because of the amount of time involved I'm deciding to get one from MisterX. Just waiting for him to build it, now.

That is who my friend had build the gamma 2 on my desk (I bought it off of him) actually.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to help with the china dacs, WAIT I just remembered I tried one, it was okay... supposedly did 32/192...  It had a cirrus logic chip I think for dac duty. It fried its self (or maybe my friend fried it.. ether way it distorts like crazy now) but long story short it was not very durable... and the case fell apart after him unscrewing the back one time.  I also have a devilsound dac and much prefer the gamma 2, all the input/output options are really nice to have.  It sounds ever so slightly more pleasant than the devilsound, and a LOT better than the chinese one (even when it was working)  but I think my amp is the limiting factor in my setup right now so your mileage may vary.

& to anyone who says that you cannot do 24/96 over usb, that's partially true, you cannot do it over legacy usb connections, from what I have read it is because of lack of bandwidth. but if you have usb 2.0+ you can run the 24/96 (highest I have gone.)

Check this, maybe fun.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/527630/rivals-dac-1-ad1955-and-tube