paradoxper
Headphoneus Supremus
Would love to see the BlackLionAudio Sparrow if at all possible.
The Black Lion Sparrow has no USB input. Not sure how I feel about that...
Folks:
Okay, another update. First, here's what's in, as of now:
- Emotiva Stealth DC-1. It's an AD1955-based DAC, making it relatively unique these days, and it's on sale for $499 shipped, making it cheap. Emotiva has a great trial period -- 30 days and you pay only return shipping.
- Resonessence Concero. An ESS 9023 DAC, it's <$1K and will be supplied by Zilch0MD (Thanks Mike!).
- Yulong DA8... An ESS 9018 DAC. It has a great reputation and I have a volunteer to take it off my hands for full price if I decide I don't like it. That person may reveal himself if he chooses, but I'm thanking him anonymously right now, because it means that this DAC will almost certainly be in the competition.
- Metrum Octave Mk II. A non-9018, NOS DAC that appears to have a supplier that offers low-cost trials.
- Lynx Hilo. Does way more things than I need, but has an excellent reputation and Happy Camper has volunteered it for the test, so it's in. Thank you HC!
- Schiit Gungnir. An AKM 4399-based DAC, and I have somebody willing to loan me one. That's a good thing, since I already used my annual Schiit return on the Mjolnir I tested last summer (yeah, another potty pun, sorry, but they asked for it). Thanks to my anonymous donor!
- Chordette QuteHD. A proprietary FPGA-based DAC, making it the kind of unique entrant that makes these comparisons fun to do. Acoustic Sounds has a 30-day return policy, no restocking, so this unit is in the test. Thanks for recommending this one JD007!
- Ciunas DAC loaned by Clemmaster. Thank you SIR!!!
Since the Ciunas is being donated, I am still willing to add another 3 DACs to the competition (note that my current Emotiva XDA-1 is also going to be written up). Still in the running for the final 3 positions:
- Anedio D2. A well-regarded 9018 DAC, and Anedio has a $49 loaner program. Kudos to them for that!!!
- NAD M51. A well-regarded player, not ESS 9018 which is a plus if we want a more varied field and getting several votes in the past couple of days.
- Dangerous Source. Another pro/studio unit, with a reputation as a giant killer at <$1K and also getting several votes in the past couple of days.
- Benchmark DAC-2. One of many ESS 9018-based mid-range DACs around, it has the advantage of coming from a company with an established reputation. More important, it has a 30-day free trial period, and they're on the East Coast of the US, meaning low return shipping costs for me.
- BMC PureDac. Guess what: another 9018 DAC, but at least it looks different... and has some support among the crew. Unfortunately Moon Audio has a 5% restocking fee, which might knock this one out of the comparison. I'll talk to them and Vapor Audio to see if there's a way around that. If not, it won't make the cut.
- Grace M903. Aimed at pro/studios first, like the Hilo (and the Benchmark, though they've apparently grown out of that niche), and has a good reputation
- Asus Xonar Essence One Muses Edition. A well-reviewed piece from a computer company... I guess those people have ears too, though you wouldn't know it from listening to my HP computer's built-in DAC.
You can still vote for your favorites, but as it stands right now the D2, NAD and Dangerous DACs are the leading contenders to fill out the field.
Gary,
I know similar solutions were discussed earlier, but you might find one of these useful (I don't know where you're at with this type of equipment, currently.)
http://www.head-fi.org/t/689783/december-2013-mid-level-dac-comparison
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_74146_FiiO-HS2.html
Mike
Hmmm... that headphone switcher looks useful for comparing the headphone outs of those DACs that have them. Have you actually heard the unit? Does it color the sound in any way? If not, I would be willing to invest $30 plus whatever it costs for 4 cables to connect it to the DACS...
Folks:
I missed the Arcam irDAC in all of the postings and commentings, etc (sorry Sweden). The Arcam's based on the Burr-Brown PCM1796 chip and it meets the return criterion via multiple sources. There have been a couple of folks supporting it here, not just Sweden. Should it push out the Emotiva, or beat out the Dangerous Source on the low end, or replace one of the higher end DACs?
Please discuss...
I have the FiiO HS2 and would lend it to you with the Concero if I weren't planning to use it extensively in testing I'll begin shortly. It's completely passive and I've never found it to affect sound quality in any way. It comes with four simple mini TRS interconnects (the black interconnects seen in the photos, below). The switching is silent. Construction is superb.
FiiO made a limited run of these for FiiO dealers to use when demo'ing FiiO DAPs with multiple headphones. They are very hard to find now. To my knowledge, the link I provided, above, is the only source in the U.S. that still has inventory.
You'll still have to move the USB cable (from the PC) back and forth between DACs (hopefully without driver issues), but I've found that I can easily select the correct driver in Foobar 2000 when I switch the USB cable between my DACmini and Concero.
Having the HS2 would at least save the time required to move analog cables.
Mike
being fed by J-River Media, which can supposedly feed multiple USB outs at once.
You can create multiple "zones" in JRiver and have each one output to a separate dac. You can also link the zones so that they all play simultaneously.
That said, sometimes a computer can't handle that many usb audio devices at one time.