[helloh3adfi]

There are so many chifi DACs like Gustard A26/R26, Topping D90 III, SMSL SU-X or SMSL D400. Most of them are at around $1000 up to $1600. Then there are non chifi brands like Schiit Bitfrost and Yggdrasil. Those have less features compared to the chifi stuff. Could you please tell me the advantages of the Schiit DACs (and other DACs up to $2500) compared to chifi, except 5 years warranty?

 

[AussieMick]

There are so many chifi DACs like Gustard A26/R26, Topping D90 III, SMSL SU-X or SMSL D400. Most of them are at around $1000 up to $1600. Then there are non chifi brands like Schiit Bitfrost and Yggdrasil. Those have less features compared to the chifi stuff. Could you please tell me the advantages of the Schiit DACs (and other DACs up to $2500) compared to chifi, except 5 years warranty?

Many feel that while the Chinese DACs are accurate and measure beautifully, they lack character that brings music alive. DACs from companies like Schitt, Chord, etc have bags of character.
Which you choose depends on budget, yes, but also philosophy. Would you like a DAC whose main claim to fame is measuring beautifully, or would you prefer your DAC to try to do something different?
As with all things, it’s different strokes, and your personal preference should be the final arbiter. As usual, only listening to them will tell you if you’d like own one and listen to it a lot. If you’re not close to a dealer then take advantage of things like Amazon’s returns policy, or headphones.com, or Schitt’s 14 days trial, etc.
Happiness will come when you own something that makes you want to listen to more and more music. If you’re just starting out it might be worthwhile starting well below your budget and trying varied styles of DAC.

 

[psy472]

I see the CHiFi have come a long way. They have a lot of electronic features compared to small specialty places like Schiit. They can sound amazing for the price. But you have risks such as build quality, longevity, and pricing. I recently got a Moondrop headphone and already buyers are posting that the Moondrop Venus (their flagship HP) are showing signs of serious defects. Moondrop is one of the more reputable CHiFi out there, ironically.

HiFiMan used to pull the stunt where they would release an awesome headphone. Founder guy saw rave reviews on head fi, then jack up the price 3 fold. Or they sell an expensive kilobucks HP only to drop the price over 50% shortly later making you feel cheated of your money. Customer service and repairs are in another country.

Schiit seems to use longer lasting hardware. Their stuff still works well years later. You get good customer service. Even their original DAC sounds way better than most super kilobucks DACs today.

 

[Rhamnetin]

It's really just the warranty, customer service, perhaps lower chance of software related issues, at the expense of performance and price. I don't think longevity is an issue from a hardware perspective - they're designed and built properly (unlike a lot of western stuff, and unlike less known Chinese stuff) and I think SMSL/Topping/Gustard even use Japanese capacitors exclusively. Whereas my American made Bricasti M1 SE with its 5 figure MSRP puts electrolytic capacitors right next to heat sinks - I trust my SMSL SU-X to last longer than that, while delivering a higher level of performance, having more connectivity options, and being half the size and under 1/10 the price.

What we're seeing from these brands is the typical evolution of electronics: higher performance, smaller size, greater efficiency, lower price. As for sound character, many of these ChiFi DACs let you select optional gentle slope filters and even "tube mode" EQ presets, though in my SMSL SU-X those tube modes still perform WAY better than actual tube gear and thus don't sound like tube gear.

If you don't want to go with ChiFi, make sure whatever you go with at least measures good enough to be fully transparent with 16-bit audio (96 dB SINAD and dynamic range), has a flat frequency response in the audio band, and has a decent reconstruction filter with a sharper cutoff and good attenuation. Avoid DACs that have their own custom made discrete digital to analog conversion circuitry - those almost never meet these goals, though surprisingly Denafrips has managed to with the Ares II and Chord does too. They're the exception to the rule though.

 

[helloh3adfi]

If you don't want to go with ChiFi, make sure whatever you go with at least measures good enough to be fully transparent with 16-bit audio (96 dB SINAD and dynamic range), has a flat frequency response in the audio band, and has a decent reconstruction filter with a sharper cutoff and good attenuation. Avoid DACs that have their own custom made discrete digital to analog conversion circuitry - those almost never meet these goals, though surprisingly Denafrips has managed to with the Ares II and Chord does too. They're the exception to the rule though.

Is the filter on SMSL devices called Sharp Roll off?

 

[Rhamnetin]

Is the filter on SMSL devices called Sharp Roll off?

They have like 7 filters: some very gentle ones, some sharper/faster ones. The one I use is called "linear fast" since it seems like the most accurate one overall. They actually include a measurement for all of them in the manual, for most of their DACs at least.

Also I forgot to say, there are at least two western companies keeping up with ChiFi in price/performance and absolute performance: JDS Labs and Schiit, particularly their more affordable options. The measurements of their DACs don't generally improve as you go up in price though, unlike with SMSL/Topping/Gustard DACs.

 

[psy472]

They have like 7 filters: some very gentle ones, some sharper/faster ones. The one I use is called "linear fast" since it seems like the most accurate one overall. They actually include a measurement for all of them in the manual, for most of their DACs at least.

Also I forgot to say, there are at least two western companies keeping up with ChiFi in price/performance and absolute performance: JDS Labs and Schiit, particularly their more affordable options. The measurements of their DACs don't generally improve as you go up in price though, unlike with SMSL/Topping/Gustard DACs.

Filters on a DAC? What Heresy is this??!!
I’m joking but I find it funny DACs are now doing EQ work too.

 

[Rhamnetin]

Filters on a DAC? What Heresy is this??!!
I’m joking but I find it funny DACs are now doing EQ work too.

While I don't care for coloration presets in DACs, one advantage I can think of for having multiband PEQ as part of a DAC is you could simultaneously use the PEQ along with bit-perfect drivers. For good DACs that feature this, I recommend RME.