For Sale:
FS: Apogee Mini-DAC with optional USB DAC board and Sigma 11 PSU
Will Ship To: CONUS 1st, International as last resort for extra $
I'm selling my beloved Apogee mini-DAC with 12v Sigma 11 PSU built by n_maher. I'd like $950 plus shipping (but I eat the paypal fees), and I want to try to sell to CONUS first. I can drop the price if you want to substitute a basic 120v AC > 12v DC switching PSU instead of the Sigma 11 PSU. Just PM me to work out the price drop.
This was my favorite DAC until I replaced it with a PS Audio Perfectwave DAC, and I was reluctant to part with it after I bought the new one, but now I need the money now for daughter's college.
This one has the optional 24-bit USB DAC, which sounds almost identical to using optical input with my Macbook Pro, i.e. extremely good. Because Apogee switched to Firewire input later on, the USB units are harder to find, and to me more desirable. My understanding is that if you bought a Firewire card later it can be installed in place of the USB card. It has coax and optical inputs as well. There is an XLR AES input but I'm not sure where the cable is. This sale is without the AES cable, but if I find it I will mail it as a bonus at no extra cost to you.
It has a nice headphone amp built-in with 1/4" jack in front, a 1/8" single ended line-out on back, and a pair of balanced XLR outputs on back. It has indicator lights for when it has a lock, and it has indicators for sampling rates up to 192K. All inputs take 24-bit. Sampling rate for USB is limited to 48K, and I don't know the optical limits, while Coax goes up to 24/192K. I mostly used it with Coax from my CD Player + USB from my Macbook.
VOLUME KNOB GOES TO 11 !!! The internal jumpers are set for the volume knob to control all of the outputs - the headphone jack, single ended line out, and balanced XLR line out. Can be easily switched back to fixed line outs by opening it up and switching the jumpers, but this works great as a pre-amp this way. Easily drives two amps and a pair of headphones at one time. There is a switch on the front to turn off the rear output jacks, to listen to the internal headphone amp only. The XLR out is strong enough to drive a balanced HD600 until you can afford a balanced amp. The dual outputs meant I was able to drive my single ended ZDT amp and balanced Woo WES amps at the same time.
Positive feedback did a review and loved it, and even more after the found that it responds well to a hi-qulaity digital coax cable and not a cheapie: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue19/apogeedac.htm
Iron_Dreamer did a review of the Apogee mini-DAC here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/226919/review-apogee-mini-dac-vs-aqvox-usb-2-d-a-mkii-vs-stello-da100-hp100-vs-corda-opera
Edited by HeadphoneAddict - 7/10/12 at 11:38pm
