AVSee
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2010
- Posts
- 1
- Likes
- 0
Hi all. I have been lurking for some months trying to find a suitable DAC for my personal audio setup and there is just so much out there it is really giving me a headache. After reading many threads on some of the gear available from China and Taiwan, I still cannot seem to make a decision. I was hoping for some guidance.
Aims:
Bang for buck at the 300USD limit.
Listening to FLAC and other lossless encoded music. I listen to pretty much anything but perhaps rock, acoustic & vocal stuff more often. As a bit of a perfectionist I tend to lean towards accurate reproduction over molested sounds. Before I bought my A5's I was looking at studio monitors such as the Behginger B2030A's. The A%'s were built for *gasp* mp3 playback but from all acounts they seem to still be a reasonable set of speakers for other higher quality sources.
Ease of use. I am a bit concerned about possibly damaging components in my audio setup as in the past I have come across issues with using analog out from a PC or digital music player analog source. I managed to accidentily damage the phono input on my old NAD stereo setup from haphazard use of an ipod source. I assume using a preamp out would be safe and sufficient to use with my A5's?
I am not really looking for expandability except perhaps rolling opamps, but it is not a requirement. Getting at least 4-5 years of reliable operation out of it would be my aim here.
Requirements:
Brand name is not important. Reliability and quality sound output is. Usually this comes from quality componentry and implementation from what I can gather around here.
I have no real use for an integrated amp as the speakers have their own. But it seems a lot of the options available have integrated headphone amps anyway.
Toslink input is preferred as I want to try and avoid electrical interference where possible. Is this the right route? Having spent many years with dodgy Logitech speaks with AC97 analog out, I cannot stand ground loops or clicks, pops and other crap.
I have been looking at the the following in no particular order of preference:
Cambridge Audio DACmagic
Beresford Caiman and lower models
Audiogd Sparrow and Fun
The various incarnations of the Zero
Matrix Mini-i
Valab NOS revision 9 and 10.
Maverick Audio D1
Little Dot DAC 1
I am completely open to suggestions too. There's also a bit of x-factor appeal to the cased/caseless preassembled mini dacs on ebay that go for $50-$140. Are they as terrible as you would expect? They seem to be the simplest piece of kit for what I want to do and might be worth the small outlay to have a bit of a play around with.
I know these sort of threads are a dime a dozen, but if anyone has any input it would be much appreciated. I am going crazy trying to pick one of these units. Thanks.
Aims:
Bang for buck at the 300USD limit.
Listening to FLAC and other lossless encoded music. I listen to pretty much anything but perhaps rock, acoustic & vocal stuff more often. As a bit of a perfectionist I tend to lean towards accurate reproduction over molested sounds. Before I bought my A5's I was looking at studio monitors such as the Behginger B2030A's. The A%'s were built for *gasp* mp3 playback but from all acounts they seem to still be a reasonable set of speakers for other higher quality sources.
Ease of use. I am a bit concerned about possibly damaging components in my audio setup as in the past I have come across issues with using analog out from a PC or digital music player analog source. I managed to accidentily damage the phono input on my old NAD stereo setup from haphazard use of an ipod source. I assume using a preamp out would be safe and sufficient to use with my A5's?
I am not really looking for expandability except perhaps rolling opamps, but it is not a requirement. Getting at least 4-5 years of reliable operation out of it would be my aim here.
Requirements:
Brand name is not important. Reliability and quality sound output is. Usually this comes from quality componentry and implementation from what I can gather around here.
I have no real use for an integrated amp as the speakers have their own. But it seems a lot of the options available have integrated headphone amps anyway.
Toslink input is preferred as I want to try and avoid electrical interference where possible. Is this the right route? Having spent many years with dodgy Logitech speaks with AC97 analog out, I cannot stand ground loops or clicks, pops and other crap.
I have been looking at the the following in no particular order of preference:
Cambridge Audio DACmagic
Beresford Caiman and lower models
Audiogd Sparrow and Fun
The various incarnations of the Zero
Matrix Mini-i
Valab NOS revision 9 and 10.
Maverick Audio D1
Little Dot DAC 1
I am completely open to suggestions too. There's also a bit of x-factor appeal to the cased/caseless preassembled mini dacs on ebay that go for $50-$140. Are they as terrible as you would expect? They seem to be the simplest piece of kit for what I want to do and might be worth the small outlay to have a bit of a play around with.
I know these sort of threads are a dime a dozen, but if anyone has any input it would be much appreciated. I am going crazy trying to pick one of these units. Thanks.
