[gimmeheadroom]

An alternative for around 550 USD might be the Bluesound node 2i. Plays MQA flawlessly but it is a streamer, not a DAC per se.

 

[Luke Thomas]

Thx will take a peak

 

[Roseval]

The Brooklyn: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-and-measurements-of-mytek-brooklyn-dac.1828/

I do think RME an excellent choice: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...version-2-dac-and-headphone-amp-review.13379/

Personally I won't spend money on a lossy audio format (MQA) but if you really want it: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-m500-dac-and-hp-amp-review.9606/

 

[gimmeheadroom]

The Brooklyn: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-and-measurements-of-mytek-brooklyn-dac.1828/

I do think RME an excellent choice: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...version-2-dac-and-headphone-amp-review.13379/

Personally I won't spend money on a lossy audio format (MQA) but if you really want it: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-m500-dac-and-hp-amp-review.9606/

The link to audioscientologyreview is for the old model, not the DAC+ I don't see any current measurements and personally I wouldn't care. Without any independent verification of the results there is no way to know what's going on over there.

 

[Dyl2525]

If you have the headphones already you could try a schiit stack a modi 3 and magni 3+ if your budget / spacing allows for it

 

[hq136185925]

try to use foobar2000 and WASAPI as a player

 

[audiobomber]

Audio Science Review static measurements do not correlate at all with sound quality. If music reproduction was that simple, it would be so easy to choose a DAC.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Audio Science Review static measurements do not correlate at all with sound quality. If music reproduction was that simple, it would be so easy to choose a DAC.

That's what a lot of us are saying and thinking. I'll take it one step further and say there is little to no correlation between anybody's measurements and how good something sounds. Specs and charts are nice but ultimately the ears and brain decide. And there is a lot of influence of personal preferences on what people like and don't like. Flavors, smells, anything to do with human senses is beyond any universal declaration of best.

 

[audiobomber]

That's what a lot of us are saying and thinking. I'll take it one step further and say there is little to no correlation between anybody's measurements and how good something sounds. Specs and charts are nice but ultimately the ears and brain decide.

I won't go that far. Audio reproduction needs both science and art. The designers I admire build with good science, then listen, and tweak the design, even to the detriment of the numbers.

 

[manueljenkin]

Hey mate, chiming in since you are looking for a dac amp for hd800. I've been driving them with these stuff - apogee groove. Sennheiser used to market their headphones along with these and they pair up really well. You might get better sound with a more capable dac/amp but this would be a really nice starting point.

 

[manueljenkin]

I have the Brooklyn DAC+ and I can recommend it. I am not aware of a less expensive DAC that does a complete MQA unfold and also doesn't occasionally lock up and fail to decode MQA.

Cool stuff. Is this the usb version or the one with integrated network card?

 

[manueljenkin]

That's what a lot of us are saying and thinking. I'll take it one step further and say there is little to no correlation between anybody's measurements and how good something sounds. Specs and charts are nice but ultimately the ears and brain decide. And there is a lot of influence of personal preferences on what people like and don't like. Flavors, smells, anything to do with human senses is beyond any universal declaration of best.

Flavor is one thing but I bet no one would enjoy a screechingly painful band of noise in their music. It's important to not "get carried away" by anything. Numbers mean something but are useless beyond certain points. Once the threshold is crossed you don't need to worry how much it's crossed the threshold, and often overcompensating in one area would likely mean sacrificing some other area, that are often ignored when measuring. These may be more audible and often disturbing.

One platform I do have decent trust on to have a "rule of thumb" is https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/ . They tend to measure things that make more sense. It isn't end all be all but atleast somewhat useful. The verdict will always be through ears.

 

[manueljenkin]

I won't go that far. Audio reproduction needs both science and art. The designers I admire build with good science, then listen, and tweak the design, even to the detriment of the numbers.

Yeah most people aren't aware that most of those companies they trash for not showing 0.00000069% thd do have analysers and have extremely good control over what they are doing. The difference is that these designers actually know what to infer from the numbers and what these numbers don't convey so they optimize it to proper performance for real world scenario which is music and not single amplitude sine squiggles.

 

[mariopepper]

HQPlayer would be nice I guess