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Apogee Mini Dac still "up tp date" ?

post #1 of 8
3/21/11 at 12:12am
Thread Starter 

I am thinking of getting a new DAC. Now the Apogee Mini DAC with USB or Firewire sounds really interesting to me. Got some questions :

 

I understand this DAC is not produced anymore by Apogge - but is it still "up to date" compared with a recent DAC like the Arcam rDac or Moon 100d etc... ?

 

Are there any other DACs I should consider in the price range around 500-700 Euro ?

 

Thanks very much for your help !

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post #2 of 8
3/21/11 at 12:00pm

I have a FW minidac and had a USB minidac.  They are great sounding DACs and are "up to date" in terms of competing with modern DAC's.  From what I've read Apogee used rather standard parts but the implementation of them is very good resulting in a nice sound.  You may have to pay a price premium for them as they are still sought after despite no longer being produced.

 

You'll get balanced output, miniplug stereo output, FW/USB In and spdif coax/optical in pretty much standard features for all DACs.  I like how you can use the DAC also as a headphone amp in case you don't have a beefier unit available.

 

As for recommendations there's tons of options in your price range so I'm not really sure where to steer you :)


Edited by Mr.Sneis - 3/21/11 at 12:01pm
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post #3 of 8
3/21/11 at 1:04pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks very much for your opinion, that was really helpful. Can you just say if there was a difference between the FW and the USB minidac in terms of tonal quality. As far as I understand from the technical side they are the same.

Just sad that they stopped the production, so I have to check the second hand market wink_face.gif

 

Right now I have a Arcam rDac at home which is also not that bad, especially with USB - looking forward to test it against the Apogee !

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post #4 of 8
3/21/11 at 1:49pm

Micha,

 

The DAC sections of the two models should be identical; in fact you can convert a non FW or non USB to having that input by buying their "upgrade" modules which are redicilously priced.  The FW or USB board is simply a small circuit board that inserts into the DAC and requires a matching backplate for the connector.  I kind of prefer the firewire to the USB, the USB model acted weird when I first plugged it in to my Mac.

 

It is very sad they stopped production; you look in their literature and website and you see the Duet and One being hyped along with their pro offerings which are probably not as good of values for the money for audiophiles.  The MiniDAC line has been argued to either be the same as the Duet or slightly better in terms of SQ depending on who you ask, I'm not 100% sure to be honest if there ever was a concrete answer though.

 

I'm not sure where the rDAC stands in terms of comparison unfortunately.

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post #5 of 8
3/21/11 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 

I might get a Apogee MiniDac later this week (hope it will work out) from a friend of mine (the USB Version) so I can compare it to my Arcam rDac. I will post my results when I can compare them !

 

Interesting what you said about the USB-Version .... in what terms did it act weird with your mac ?

 

I never understood the hype around the Duet and One, these products somehow do not speak to me at all wink.gif

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post #6 of 8
3/21/11 at 3:47pm

Well as the Duet it's not really a universal dac but rather a firewire (Mac) only dac.  Mini dac will work with PC via the optical or coax, in fact right now I use it with my PC, PS3, and Mac for my speaker/secondary headphone setup without the need for constant unplugging of cables.

 

When I first plugged in the USB I had a hard time figuring out how to get the output to work.  In the end it was a combination of reboots and settings for audio midi (matching sample rate and bit-depth) that got it to fire up.  It's probably the same deal with the Firewire but I had learned a little more since then.  Curious to see your findings!

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post #7 of 8
3/21/11 at 11:50pm
Thread Starter 

Will keep the thread updated of my findings. Thanks for your kind help so far !

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post #8 of 8
3/23/11 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 

Got the chance today to compare the Apogee Mini Dac with my Arcam rDac. The Apogee came in the version without USB or Firewire so I used a optical cable direct from my iMac. The Arcam was connected with the iMac via USB. I used iTunes and mostly WAV or Apple Lossless Files, listening only to classical music.

 

I switched lots of times between the 2 DACs and I have to say both are very good (at least in my ears). At the end I voted for the Apogee (even connected only via optical cable) as the whole music had little more punch, little bit more details and colors. But the maybe biggest difference was the soundstage. The Apogee offered a much wider soundstage than the Arcam did.

 

No deep gaps between the two candidates, only sometimes small details ... but they make the difference. 

 

To me the Apogee is the winner, would be interesting how it would sound via USB or Firewire.


Edited by Micha - 3/23/11 at 10:13am
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