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Need some solid experience based advice!!!

post #1 of 9
9/5/11 at 6:36am
Thread Starter 

So here's the deal. I don't have a external dac.  I am putting my lossless files onto my ipod and playing them via the line out dock to rca to my Little Dot I+ to my Grado RS-1.  I do have coaxial out on my pc.  I want advice on what would be a great dac for around $500 usd. While this is not a set in stone budget, I would like to keep it around this price. Things sound great now, but I have this aching feeling a dac could make it even better!  I have western electric 408a tubes in the LD I+ and have also switched out my op amp to a National Semiconductor LM4562.  I do have a Burr-Brown OPA2107AP en route to try out as well.  I have been poking around the forum threads and the Yulong D100 seems popular for the price, but is it truly transparent?  It seems as though some find it to be too bright. I also don't necessarily need a dac with an integrated amp.  Can I have some suggestions in the price range?  Please no Bifrost bandwagon spam, I will watch the threads concerning that once people have them and they have burned in.  Thanks all!!

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post #2 of 9
9/5/11 at 7:04am

Some find the D100 to be "too bright" because they're used to colored DACs and amps with rolled off treble. Its frequency response is perfectly flat. It's pretty much the same unit as a Benchmark DAC1, which I did own for a few weeks, which everyone says is bright as well. It wasn't bright for me, not with an LCD-2 or even a Grado HF-2. Plug a bright headphone into a transparent amp/DAC (and most audiophile headphones are bright) and you'll get a bright sound. I don't believe in coloration in the amp or DAC.

 

If you get the D100, try its headphone out too. I used a Little Dot I+ with my HF-2 for a year and a half. The improvements with the DAC1 were subtle (they always are with amps and DACs) but the significantly lower distortion and noise floor did help to clear the sound up. Quiet sounds were more detailed, and weren't buried by louder notes. You might actually get more improvement from the amp than the DAC. The iPod measures fine, the I+ has a fair amount of distortion. Whether you like distortion or not is up to you, but I'm against it in my amps on principle.

 

If you want a standalone DAC to use with your Little Dot, the DacMagic is a good unit, and if you want to go cheaper the CEntrance DACport looks good as well.

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post #3 of 9
9/6/11 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 

No one else has any suggestions?

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post #4 of 9
9/6/11 at 1:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bennyhaha812 View Post

No one else has any suggestions?



Yes, turn the bold off. There's no need to put your posts in bold, we can all read.

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post #5 of 9
9/6/11 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thommohawk View Post





Yes, turn the bold off. There's no need to put your posts in bold, we can all read.


Sorry.

 

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post #6 of 9
9/6/11 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bennyhaha812 View Post




Sorry.

 


No worries, no harm done - I hope you get the help you want. :) 

 

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post #7 of 9
9/10/11 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 

Bump

 

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post #8 of 9
9/10/11 at 1:16pm

Dacmagic, Schiit Bifrost?

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post #9 of 9
9/10/11 at 1:39pm

Have you checked out the Matrix Mini-i or the Matrix Quattro? they look good

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