Elephas
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2005
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I'm an enthusiastic Computer-As-Source user, and listen mostly to lossless formats on a PC with iTunes and foobar ASIO. A few weeks ago, I purchased two non-oversampling DACs on eBay, the Mhdt Lab Dialogue II and Moodlab DAC, and had excellent results with them. I was pleasantly surprised by their sound quality and thought they both sounded better than the E-MU 1212m analog outputs. I was also kicking myself for using the 1212m analog out for the previous few months and not taking a chance on these two inexpensive DACs sooner.
Needing something to compare the non-OS DACs with, I decided on the CEC DA53. I was considering a Benchmark DAC1 or Apogee Mini-DAC, but both are considerably more expensive. Also, I wanted a DAC with USB input for use with a notebook PC. The Benchmark doesn't have USB and the Apogee Mini-DAC with USB option costs more than twice as much as the CEC DA53 here in Taiwan. I was able to demo the DA53 with various headphones and amps for a couple hours and was pleased with its price, sound and features.
Recently, I also got an AirPort Express (AE). This is also something I'm kicking myself for not getting sooner. The AE allows wireless streaming from multiple PCs using iTunes. Its output is a combination analog and optical 3.5mm mini. Using a mini-toslink cable, I connected the AE to the DA53 and Dialogue II. The Moodlab only has a coaxial input; if it had toslink, it would match the AE very well with its translucent white casing and small size.
Through the optical output of the AE, the DA53 and Dialogue II both sound excellent. Through the 1212m's toslink and coaxial outputs, all three DACs sound very good. The DA53's USB input also sounds very good. It uses Windows' standard USB Audio Codec driver, which means it's plug-and-play.
The 1212m's analog output is inferior to all three DACs and I am definitely not using it anymore. Apparently, E-MU's PatchMix driver affects the sound in some way and not always for the better. Comparing the AE -> DA53 setup to 1212m toslink/coaxial output -> DA53, playing ALAC on iTunes, AE -> DA53 sounds better overall. It is clearer, has better instrument separation, more details, and has deeper and stronger bass.
I intend to spend more time listening to each DAC and will post more impressions.
The CEC DA53 is an upsampling 24Bit/192 kHz DAC. It has toslink, coaxial, AES/EBU and USB 1.1 inputs, and balanced XLR and RCA analog outputs. It has headphone and microphone ports intended for computer telephony that are active only when using USB.
EDIT: the CEC datasheet states it upsamples to 24Bit/195 kHz.
The Moodlab TDA1543 Non-OS DAC is very small. Its plastic white casing is translucent and a blue LED lights up within the case. Here it's with an iPod 30GB and SuperMacro-3.
The Mhdt Lab Dialogue II is also a TDA1543-based Non-OS DAC. It has a smoked-black plastic translucent case and is bigger than the Moodlab. It has toslink, coaxial, and BNC inputs.
Dialogue II and Moodlab with Sony CDP-XA7es and Sony CDP-X505es as transports
Both the Dialogue II and Moodlab have LEDs inside their cases. The Moodlab has a blue power indicator LED. The Dialogue II has three LEDs (blue, green and red) that light up depending on status.
Needing something to compare the non-OS DACs with, I decided on the CEC DA53. I was considering a Benchmark DAC1 or Apogee Mini-DAC, but both are considerably more expensive. Also, I wanted a DAC with USB input for use with a notebook PC. The Benchmark doesn't have USB and the Apogee Mini-DAC with USB option costs more than twice as much as the CEC DA53 here in Taiwan. I was able to demo the DA53 with various headphones and amps for a couple hours and was pleased with its price, sound and features.
Recently, I also got an AirPort Express (AE). This is also something I'm kicking myself for not getting sooner. The AE allows wireless streaming from multiple PCs using iTunes. Its output is a combination analog and optical 3.5mm mini. Using a mini-toslink cable, I connected the AE to the DA53 and Dialogue II. The Moodlab only has a coaxial input; if it had toslink, it would match the AE very well with its translucent white casing and small size.
Through the optical output of the AE, the DA53 and Dialogue II both sound excellent. Through the 1212m's toslink and coaxial outputs, all three DACs sound very good. The DA53's USB input also sounds very good. It uses Windows' standard USB Audio Codec driver, which means it's plug-and-play.
The 1212m's analog output is inferior to all three DACs and I am definitely not using it anymore. Apparently, E-MU's PatchMix driver affects the sound in some way and not always for the better. Comparing the AE -> DA53 setup to 1212m toslink/coaxial output -> DA53, playing ALAC on iTunes, AE -> DA53 sounds better overall. It is clearer, has better instrument separation, more details, and has deeper and stronger bass.
I intend to spend more time listening to each DAC and will post more impressions.
The CEC DA53 is an upsampling 24Bit/192 kHz DAC. It has toslink, coaxial, AES/EBU and USB 1.1 inputs, and balanced XLR and RCA analog outputs. It has headphone and microphone ports intended for computer telephony that are active only when using USB.
EDIT: the CEC datasheet states it upsamples to 24Bit/195 kHz.
The Moodlab TDA1543 Non-OS DAC is very small. Its plastic white casing is translucent and a blue LED lights up within the case. Here it's with an iPod 30GB and SuperMacro-3.
The Mhdt Lab Dialogue II is also a TDA1543-based Non-OS DAC. It has a smoked-black plastic translucent case and is bigger than the Moodlab. It has toslink, coaxial, and BNC inputs.
Dialogue II and Moodlab with Sony CDP-XA7es and Sony CDP-X505es as transports
Both the Dialogue II and Moodlab have LEDs inside their cases. The Moodlab has a blue power indicator LED. The Dialogue II has three LEDs (blue, green and red) that light up depending on status.