[sheldaze]

My laptop is also old - approaching 8 years. I own a Wyrd, but did not use it for the DACport HD. I just recently bought a REGEN, which has transformed the sound tremendously to my ears. But as you said (and I paraphrase):
 
It depends.
 
Not all my USB DAC/AMP are improved by the REGEN. So obviously, there is a little more sensitivity to having a good source for the DACport HD.
 
Thanks for your reply!

 

[nonverbal]

It depends on the headphones you use with Dacport HD,with HD6x0s I didnt feel naughty with the treble,with DT990s(including Premium ver. and PRO ver.) there are some.Paired it with Schiit Wyrd and become much better on treble and contrllable bass.

Haven't try USB regen though.I condsider buying a set and AOC optical USB cable with it.

 

[sheldaze]

I'm using AKG K7XX at the moment - I do switch. But because I started listening to a few other USB DAC/AMP with the AKG, I think I'll try to stick to it for now.

 

[fishyee]

I found the Dacport HD to be quite neutral. The detail is there but not in your face. The treble behaves nicely when the HD is paired with my Philips X2.

My laptop setup: Dell XT3 (Separate USB Hub) - Foobar2000 (ASIO) - Anker Powerline USB - Dacport HD - Philips X2.

This link may help you with your USB problems if you are on Windows.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/knowledge-base/show/3671/windows-78-tuning-tips-for-audio-processing/

 

[nonverbal]

Actually,I have tuned my Windows accoring to that article...uh,yes it did work
I think the slightly treble-boost on my Dacport HD is totally another thing,especially after I use it with Wyrd...
I guess  the problem is due to my laptop(Lenovo Thinkpad X201i)usb-powered bus is not stable,maybe I'll replace my power supply.
During this time,I wont remove Wyrd from my laptop setup 

I mainly use Dacport HD on my blue-tooth and active speaker setup now...and it's quite amazing,better performance than my previous NOS DAC(build with TDA1541),more dynamics and detail,ad totally not bright with speakers. 

 

[JerseyD]

I'm surprised by the lack of love for the DACport HD here on Head-Fi. Been doing head to head dongle-dac battles and have found the DACport HD beats the Dragonfly 1.2 and the AudioEngine D3, both in clarity and sheer power to drive difficult headphones. Is it that CEntrance is just a smaller under-the-radar company? Thoughts?

 

[vtkc]

I'm surprised by the lack of love for the DACport HD here on Head-Fi. Been doing head to head dongle-dac battles and have found the DACport HD beats the Dragonfly 1.2 and the AudioEngine D3, both in clarity and sheer power to drive difficult headphones. Is it that CEntrance is just a smaller under-the-radar company? Thoughts?

I agree with you that the DACPort HD is not getting enough love as it should have. I still use it to listen some of my music even though I use primarily my Onkyo DP-X1 dap. Although it have a smaller soundstage stage as compared to dp-x1, it is still a good DAC for its price and function.

 

[stimy]

  I'm surprised by the lack of love for the DACport HD here on Head-Fi. Been doing head to head dongle-dac battles and have found the DACport HD beats the Dragonfly 1.2 and the AudioEngine D3, both in clarity and sheer power to drive difficult headphones. Is it that CEntrance is just a smaller under-the-radar company? Thoughts?

I completely agree also.... I love my HD paired with my Noble K10s. I purchased the dragonfly I wound up sending it back, just didn't live up to the hype. I try something the other night it was pretty crazy I put my HD in high gain and attach my DT 880 600ohm headphones to it. I was amazed at the output they sounded incredible coming from this little device. Of course it instantly became a hand warmer. I have recently set up a new portable rig with an old Samsung galaxy S5 with the DACport HD attached to it, and I love it!! I purchased an extended battery for the phone so I can get all day use out of it. I love playing Tidal and having a nice interface to mess with. Yo check it below.....
 
Sterling

 

[francoamerican]

I'm starting to try using the line out option, but neither position (gain on low or high, with volume knob set to maximum) seems quite right to me. Per the instructions, using the low gain with maximum volume, seems too low. And the other gain option seems too high.

I agree in my system - low gain is too low for line level. If i understand correctly, dbu 14.5 / 4.1 vrms ( what the dacport hd is on high gain) is 8 db greater than a 2 vrms standard cd output (so a bit hot)

If low gain is 20 db less does that mean its outputting only .411 vrms?

My creek amp has a minimum sensitivity 410 mv and max of 5.4 vrms and the high gain is much better i think.

The dacport slim is probably better a bit at 2.9v for use in a typical speaker system i think. But its still 3.25 db hot

The thing is theres so little noise its still sounds great.

I could be wrong about all this.

 

[sheldaze]

I agree in my system - low gain is too low for line level. If i understand correctly, dbu 14.5 / 4.1 vrms ( what the dacport hd is on high gain) is 8 db greater than a 2 vrms standard cd output (so a bit hot)

If low gain is 20 db less does that mean its outputting only .411 vrms?

My creek amp has a minimum sensitivity 410 mv and max of 5.4 vrms and the high gain is much better i think.

The dacport slim is probably better a bit at 2.9v for use in a typical speaker system i think. But its still 3.25 db hot

The thing is theres so little noise its still sounds great.

I could be wrong about all this.

Brooko has some really good threads on reviews and measurements and such. I'd probably head there, and will do myself when I have some more time.
 
All I know today is the CEntrance DACport and Skyn products are really good 

 
I have USB computer issues, which were stopping me from hearing the full potential of the DACport HD.
 
And regarding the line-level volume, on the Skyn it has a third volume level. So on DACport HD, it only has high and low. Using basically the same hardware in the Skyn, they add a third medium level for line-out, which when set to maximum produces the correct voltage for line-level.

 

[francoamerican]

I got this to work with my nexus 5x with just a usb c to usb micro cable!
 
Very nice

 

[innaterebel]

Is a reboot definitely necessary after driver installation on Windows, or is it conditional?

 

[Geraffe]

 

  I'm surprised by the lack of love for the DACport HD here on Head-Fi. Been doing head to head dongle-dac battles and have found the DACport HD beats the Dragonfly 1.2 and the AudioEngine D3, both in clarity and sheer power to drive difficult headphones. Is it that CEntrance is just a smaller under-the-radar company? Thoughts?

I completely agree also.... I love my HD paired with my Noble K10s. I purchased the dragonfly I wound up sending it back, just didn't live up to the hype. I try something the other night it was pretty crazy I put my HD in high gain and attach my DT 880 600ohm headphones to it. I was amazed at the output they sounded incredible coming from this little device. Of course it instantly became a hand warmer. I have recently set up a new portable rig with an old Samsung galaxy S5 with the DACport HD attached to it, and I love it!! I purchased an extended battery for the phone so I can get all day use out of it. I love playing Tidal and having a nice interface to mess with. Yo check it below.....
 
Sterling

Nice setup. Would you mind sharing where you got that small OTG cable? i have been searching for it everywhere. Would like to try it with my Galaxy S4, with the new 5800MaH battery.

 

[wondroushippo]

I gotta say, the DACport HD works pretty well on iOS once you get the USB 3 Camera Adapter. What once was unwieldy to use on the go (I used a portable hub with a USB y-cable into a portable battery to get it working with the CCK) is now a lot easier, for sure.

BTW, does anyone use this as a DAC with an external amp? The output level is way too low for me on low level cranked to max. I try to use it with my O2 at home configured to 1x/3.3x gain, I believe, and I have to turn my volume up higher with IEMs, and my Q701 run out of headroom on max gain. I emailed CEntrance and they said I'd be fine at high gain maxed out if my amp doesn't overload, or finding a good volume level, but is this not bypassing the headphone amp like I presume it is on low gain max volume?

 

[sheldaze]

I gotta say, the DACport HD works pretty well on iOS once you get the USB 3 Camera Adapter. What once was unwieldy to use on the go (I used a portable hub with a USB y-cable into a portable battery to get it working with the CCK) is now a lot easier, for sure.

BTW, does anyone use this as a DAC with an external amp? The output level is way too low for me on low level cranked to max. I try to use it with my O2 at home configured to 1x/3.3x gain, I believe, and I have to turn my volume up higher with IEMs, and my Q701 run out of headroom on max gain. I emailed CEntrance and they said I'd be fine at high gain maxed out if my amp doesn't overload, or finding a good volume level, but is this not bypassing the headphone amp like I presume it is on low gain max volume?

The USB 3 Camera Adapter is a recent, pleasant find for me too! I heard sonic anomalies when plugged directly into my computer, so I was using a REGEN - also a bit cumbersome. The DAC and AMP are good, but they really benefit from a clean source. And I too am finding the new adapter from Apple to be plenty clean to my ears!
 
I was a little bummed regarding the line-level output. It seems that the lower power DACport Slim measures correctly, per the instructions of how to obtain line-level. I tried following the instructions on both low and high level on the DACport HD, and could not get a line-level output. In their Skÿn project, which I believe uses the same AMP technology as the DACport HD, there is a high, low, and medium level of output. It is the medium level that is used for line-level output.
 
Sorry - not posting a solution. I'm just agreeing with you with regards to line-level