[bonami2]

Hi all

Currently am using my onboard on a decent motherboard.

And im looking to upgrade to a usb or optical Dac.

Pc to SMSL Sa-50 to Bookshelf Fluance SX6


Will probably upgrade amp to a Emotiva 2 channel 150w rms 8ohm
And change bookshelf one days.

So what kind of dac would be good for an upgrade?

Budget 100-250 Canadian $

Thank you

 

[PurpleAngel]

Hifimediy DAC, $42-$70.
https://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs?sort=p.price&order=ASC

 

[bonami2]

Hifimediy DAC, $42-$70.
https://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs?sort=p.price&order=ASC

I would love to order from them but import fee are too much trouble in canada.

I can have smsl topping fiio stuff easily or anything that amazon.com has most of the time.

Thank you

 

[HBen]

To be frank, I highly doubt there will be any significant improvement in sound quality at that price point, if any at all. And if there "is" it's mostly placebo and people wanting to hear improvements to justify their purchases.

Onboard sound cards on decent motherboards are more capable than most people want to acknowledge, especially on these forums. Also think about the cost of the cabinet, the power supply and all that on an external dac. Not much room to play with good internals at this price point.

I have tested quite a lot and can say with confidence that I haven't heard many standalone/external DAC's below around 300$ that sounded better than directly out of a decent motherboard.

This combined with the fact, that nowadays DAC's play a pretty minor role to sound quality unless you play in area of the the multi-thousand dollar setups, its a real waste of money to buy an external dac in your situation.

Many here will probably disagree but please consider: my (of course personal) judgement is made by testing and not by "reading reviews online".

Cheers and good luck on your audio journey

 

[bonami2]

To be frank, I highly doubt there will be any significant improvement in sound quality at that price point, if any at all. And if there "is" it's mostly placebo and people wanting to hear improvements to justify their purchases.

Onboard sound cards on decent motherboards are more capable than most people want to acknowledge, especially on these forums. Also think about the cost of the cabinet, the power supply and all that on an external dac. Not much room to play with good internals at this price point.

I have tested quite a lot and can say with confidence that I haven't heard many standalone/external DAC's below around 300$ that sounded better than directly out of a decent motherboard.

This combined with the fact, that nowadays DAC's play a pretty minor role to sound quality unless you play in area of the the multi-thousand dollar setups, its a real waste of money to buy an external dac in your situation.

Many here will probably disagree but please consider: my (of course personal) judgement is made by testing and not by "reading reviews online".

Cheers and good luck on your audio journey

Well i do think it make sense.

Thank you alot for the advice il stick with my onboard and upgrade speaker and amp instead.

 

[HBen]

Well i do think it make sense.

Thank you alot for the advice il stick with my onboard and upgrade speaker and amp instead.

Sounds like a plan.

If you don't mind another advice:

Put the biggest part of the budget for audio improvement on the speakers (or headphones if you go that road) and the biggest part of your time into optimizing the room acoustics.

When it comes to sound quality the most important factors BY FAR are the quality of the recording/soundfile and the speakers as well as the room - or the headphone (no room here ). Everything else plays a pretty minor role.

I would go as far as saying (and many sound engineers would probably agree), that unless you have equipment that doesn't fit at all (for example weak tube amp for speakers with low efficiency) or is broken, these 3 factors (recording, speakers and room) make up for about 90% of the sound quality.