Thanks. I will look into the 2Qute over the next few days and re-consider if I need the headphone amp or only a straight DAC. Is there a good dealer in the US where i can buy one if I move forward with this? I wish my budget could extend to the Brooklyn.
I'm also looking for a DAC for MabBook, but connecting to a pair of powered speakers. The speakers have XLR input. Does that mean I must buy a DAC with balanced outputs?
Budget is $ 300 but willing to stretch for good choices. Thanks!
I'm also looking for a DAC for MabBook, but connecting to a pair of powered speakers. The speakers have XLR input. Does that mean I must buy a DAC with balanced outputs?
Budget is $ 300 but willing to stretch for good choices. Thanks!
Lol sorry man, I just started another thread for my question.
PS How do you connect your MBP 2017 to normal USB's? I used an one-to-four thunderbolt to USB 3.0 port with my MBP 2016 and found it could affect the WIFI function.
Thanks. I will look into the 2Qute over the next few days and re-consider if I need the headphone amp or only a straight DAC. Is there a good dealer in the US where i can buy one if I move forward with this? I wish my budget could extend to the Brooklyn.
If you plan to change the amplifier in the future I would go with a truly balanced DAC (and go balanced all the way up to the earspeakers). I just have a lambda system but noticed a difference between the single ended and balanced outputs of my previous and current DAC (AQVOX USB 2D/A MkII and Yggdrasil). A new (because of the warranty) Gumby would be a good bet in that price range. If you are going to keep the amplifier, a DAC just with single ended outputs would be cheaper and more versatile (e.g. DSD, maybe with a headphone amplifier). Software makes a difference. Audirvana is good but unless you are willing to make some changes every time there is a OSX update, Direct Mode is broken in the last OSX versions, still sounds good though...
If you plan to change the amplifier in the future I would go with a truly balanced DAC (and go balanced all the way up to the earspeakers). I just have a lambda system but noticed a difference between the single ended and balanced outputs of my previous and current DAC (AQVOX USB 2D/A MkII and Yggdrasil). A new (because of the warranty) Gumby would be a good bet in that price range. If you are going to keep the amplifier, a DAC just with single ended outputs would be cheaper and more versatile (e.g. DSD, maybe with a headphone amplifier). Software makes a difference. Audirvana is good but unless you are willing to make some changes every time there is a OSX update, Direct Mode is broken in the last OSX versions, still sounds good though...
Thanks. i am looking through their website - it seems to be a well thought out product. Is it true that is is future proof on the DACS and that you can upgrade modules?
If Direct Mode (Audirvana) is important to you, there are ways to keep it:
A) If you are on El Capitan, don’t upgrade to (High) Sierra. Or if MBP is for music only, install/downgrade to El Capitan.
B) Keep El Capitan and latest OS on separate partitions on MBP. Boot into the former when playing music, and the latter for everything else.
C) On latest OS replace kext file with El Capitan one (mentioned above by axle_69). Needs to be repeated after every OS upgrade.
Here is more info about option C. Whether lack of Direct Mode will actually reduce sound quality seems debatable, I wouldn’t abandon Audirvana just on that.
According to the link Direct Mode is essentially a custom "audiophile" driver Damien (Audirvana developer) coded to take the place of the OS X Core Audio driver.
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