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DAC considerations

post #1 of 7
7/4/11 at 6:42am
Thread Starter 

I recently bought a Maverick Audio Tubemagic A1 amp here on Head-Fi and I love the way it drives my headphones AND my speakers comfortably from such a relatively small box. It's currently being fed from my desktop pc by a Silverstone EB01 usb-DAC which gets the job done when playing 16bit FLAC files. 24bits are downsampled. But which way to go for a new, 24/96-capable PC -> amp solution around $2-300?

 

The obvious choice would be to get the Maverick D1 dac as the A1 and D1 were literally made for each other. This would also give me a wide range of inputs, allowing me to connect my PS3 and my tablet as well. But should I just hook it up to USB and be happy or do I upgrade to a decent sound card and use coax or optical to connect the pc to the DAC? Should I just use an optical cable from the onboard sound card?

 

Another solution would be to get a new usb dac, capable of handling 24/96 files. But since I do all my listening in Ubuntu Linux, will I need special drivers to enable 24/96? 

 

Or I could get something like the Aune DAC mini and hook it up to the pc via optical or coax?

 

Any and all input & suggestions are most welcome :)

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post #2 of 7
7/6/11 at 12:06am
Thread Starter 

I went with this bad boy as a local seller had it for $80:

http://www.itemaudio.co.uk/superpro_dac.html

 

I'll be picking up a Maverick D1 today as well, as a 2-week loaner from a very kind danish head-fi'er. Will report my findings here. Should be fun to do a shootout between 3 relatively cheap DACs :)

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post #3 of 7
7/7/11 at 10:06pm

I have the Maverick Audio DAC and I m using it to power some HD 650s.  USE USB!!!!!     I was using optical Toslink from my creative X-FI sound card and I switched to USB, it Sounds way better.  I've tested it Blind folded, its not the placebo effect USB really dose improve sound when coming from a PC.    I m not sure why, I'm researching the issue right now.  Will post back when I find out more.   The Maverick DAC dose a great Job with any input but USB sounds the best period.  

 

Interested to know if Cheaper DACs work as well as the Maverick  let me know what you find out. 

WP_000061.jpg


Edited by Super MANSKITO - 7/7/11 at 10:09pm
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post #4 of 7
7/7/11 at 10:53pm
Thread Starter 

That would depend entirely on your sound card and the source material you're feeding it. With USB, you'll get 16/44.1 where as optical or coax will let you feed 24/96 to the DAC. Trust me, with 24/96 material there is a difference. try downloading the free trial album from www.hdtracks.com and give 24/96 a spin. 

 

When using toslink, be sure to disable any and all sound "enhancements" that the Creative driver adds as they can seriously distort the sound.

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post #5 of 7
7/7/11 at 11:44pm

Why whould USB be limited to 16/44.1?  I have higher res audio tracks and they play fine over USB  96/24 for example plays great.    As to any enhancements in the creative drivers as far as i can tell there all disabled. 

 

Also After more research turns out TOSlink has extremely poor  jitter response compared to USB  thanks to information gathered here and on Google. Not sure if that is the reason for the SQ delta, still looking into the issue. 


Edited by Super MANSKITO - 7/7/11 at 11:46pm
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post #6 of 7
7/8/11 at 3:03am
Thread Starter 

Sorry, double post!


Edited by Sorensiim - 7/8/11 at 3:10am
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post #7 of 7
7/8/11 at 3:09am
Thread Starter 

I honestly do not mean to offend you or come off as an arrogant ass, but you might want to do some more googling.

 

Your Maverick D1 only supports 16/44.1 via USB. Any material in a higher resolution than that will be downsampled. Some DAC's support 24/96 via USB, the D1 does not. Info here: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/470639/maverick-audio-tubemagic-d1-dac-amp-condensed-faq-and-info-thread# (click "USB Driver"). It supports 24/96 via coax or toslink. 

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