[the terabyte]

i'm looking to move away from my current sonica -> DI/O setup, mostly due to the extremely poor drivers that m-audio has put out for the sonica theater on OS X (other than that it sounds great). at the same time, i'd like to switch to a 1-box rig, both for convenience and to eliminate the necessity for a digital cable. enter the apogee mini-dac. i ran a search (thank god thats back up) and found many people recommending it, but no one actually seemed to have one. is this still the case, or has anyone at least gotten a chance to do some critical listening with one? i'm torn between this and the RME HDSP with the Multiface, but i doubt anyone has heard both of them to compare, though i may be wrong.

 

[Spent&Bent]

Maybe I should not answer this, I have not heard the minidac but I do own the RME.
At one point I was considering buying the minidac because the guy who owned my current dac (superdac) found it very superior to the superdac which he sold to me.

Since the superdac is very excellent and I trust his ears and taste in music, I am pretty sure the apogee is worth its money.

I find the analog outs of the RME not superior to the superdac unbalanced analog outs btw, although the sound is of a different flavour, especially the midrange, so maybe you can take it as a hint to the apogee's performance which like I said should be better.

Soundstage depth is similar as is amount of detail, there is a slight emphasis shift on certain instruments and the RME midrange sounds different (better?) on the baby orpheus (I have not tried to compare it with tube amp and RS-1 yet but that seems not as useful)

 

[tk_suki]

This little thing caught my attention today. An Esoteric X-30(CDP, RDOT with new VRDS) was feeding it.

I have seen on a few other occaissions connected to what I felt were good sources and confused me why they had this scrawny piece of equip in the middle.

For starters, I tested the headphone jack, with CD3Ks, very good! As good as I have heard actually. Just before I was listening to the Omegas and SR-007t, nice but not WOW*. I am waiting for a Stealth, soon... so might have a better perspective, but anyway... back to the DAC.

Nice set of inputs. I can see also using for PC audio server¡¢this dual use is one of its primary attractions.

When switching sources, it did take a while few minutes or so for the signal to sync to be able to start using.

Well time to do some more research on this little puppy!

Welcome comments.

* Omegas were fed by an older Phillips transport. As well, cables, interconnects could have impacted performance. Not meant to be opinion on these, I am still evaluating. As is the fun, thrill of the chase.

 

[tourmaline]

there is a review on a dutch hifi site of the mini super dac.

it got a raving review. very well built, super sound! very natural sounding, not digital at all. at last, that is what the reviewer said/wrote. it is not a dac that will blow your socks of immediatly, but it does it's job very well with very natural sounds.

 

[ayt999]

does anyone have any more info on this DAC? I'm interested in it and have been looking around for reviews on it but didn't find anything that I found to be useful.

are there better DAC options out there for the same price range? and how does this compare to the DAC in the RME hammerfall DSP 9632 or the Grace 901?

somewhat offtopic, but what is the purpose of getting the RME multiface with the HDSP? am I missing out on something here?

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally posted by ayt999 does anyone have any more info on this DAC? I'm interested in it and have been looking around for reviews on it but didn't find anything that I found to be useful. are there better DAC options out there for the same price range? and how does this compare to the DAC in the RME hammerfall DSP 9632 or the Grace 901? somewhat offtopic, but what is the purpose of getting the RME multiface with the HDSP? am I missing out on something here?

Try hooking up both digital output (preferrably optical) and analog to your Grace from the RME.

Then play a song and toggle back and forth the Digital/analog switch on the Grace.

-Ed

 

[the terabyte]

Quote:

Originally posted by ayt999 somewhat offtopic, but what is the purpose of getting the RME multiface with the HDSP? am I missing out on something here?

i don't use a desktop as my main computer, so the PCI HDSP is a nono. thus i'd use the cardbus hammerfall dsp card to interface with the multiface.

all of this may be lost at this point as i've oscillated back to analog, however.

 

[ayt999]

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwood Try hooking up both digital output (preferrably optical) and analog to your Grace from the RME. Then play a song and toggle back and forth the Digital/analog switch on the Grace. -Ed

ya... I ordered some glass optical cables just for that purpose (I also have the one that came with the RME and a sony optical cable to work with and have tried it a few weeks back. for now I prefer the RME.).

but what I was wondering was not how the RME / grace DACs compared to each other but how the apogee miniDAC compares to either one.