BIT-PERFECT Audio DAC

[hortoholic]

Hello, I have came across the BIT-PERFECT DAC and I was asking if anyone who owns this if it's any good. I want to use this for my Grados SR60's. Any ideas or recommendations would be great. If you know of any for a similar price (less than $100) that would also be great.

Thank you greatly,

hortoholic

 

[FallenAngel]

That really doesn't tell us anything. Do you have a link to this DAC? DACs are "passive" in terms of what they process, you send a digital stream (whether it be bit perfect or not) and the DAC converts it into an analog stream. There is no such thing as a "bit perfect" DAC (or not - well, unless you upsample).

 

[hortoholic]

There are two on ebay:

HOTAUDIO BIT-PERFECT USB DAC HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER AMP - eBay (item 260431373979 end time Jun-25-09 12:19:23 PDT)

Bit Perfect USB DAC Amp for Headphones PC Mac Laptop - eBay (item 180372287880 end time Jun-29-09 16:42:48 PDT)

They are slightly different. I spoke with hotaudio and he recommends the bit perfect. (maybe he's just trying to sell it to me..) but anyways, if you require more info please let me know.

 

[linuxworks]

seems like a burr brown pcm chip, not all that diff from the gamma1, bantam and similar.

the only thing bit-perfect is that this dac wont' FORCE a resample to 48k, for example.

but if you use digital volume control at the source (pc) then you WILL lose bits (in res) due to digital atten.

if you leave the host (pc) vol control at 100% then its bit perfect but so are most others, too!

 

[hortoholic]

I found a Go - Vibe DAC. Pardon me for sounding dumb but would forcing a resample at 48k be good? improve sound quality?

 

[koven]

how about the y1 DAC instead

 

[FallenAngel]

No, resampling to 48kHz is generally bad, it would obviously not be bit-perfect.

 

[sonci]

Shouldn`t every DAC outthere be bitperfect?

 

[FallenAngel]

DACs don't understand "bit-perfect" from not, they convert bits into analog signals. Some might have internal resampling/upsampling which makes it 100% NOT bit-perfect, but people generally talk about the signal going TO the DACs being bit-perfect or not.

 

[hortoholic]

Bottom line: is this a good DAC? or should I go with the other DACs suggested? Thank you guys and girls once again for your replies.

 

[FallenAngel]

Purely as a DAC, I'd go for others - such as the Gamma1, as a DAC/Amp combination, who knows. Still, personally, I'd go for the Gamma1 + CMOY (without input caps) for around the same price, but then you gotta build it yoruself.