Desktop O2/ODAC alternative for someone in Ireland?
Feb 3, 2017 at 3:01 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 24
overhaze

overhaze

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Hi 
 
I've wanted a Desktop O2/ODAC for a while now but its price to performance ratio is ruined by the fact I'd be hammered with taxes if I tried to import one from Mayflower or JDS Labs. Is there any single box solution out there easily available in Ireland/UK/Europe that is competitive with it? I could walk into a shop in the middle of Dublin and buy a Chord for over a grand but when it comes to value for money options seem limited.
 
Feb 3, 2017 at 3:50 PM Post #3 of 24
kmackithich said:
  Has it to be a single box ? A modi/magni combo is quite a deal and it's small.
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Same problem, its a US import. There is a Schiit EU which seems to be official but an uber stack would cost me almost €400. For comparison I could get SMSL Sanskrit and Fiio K5 off of Amazon uk for €237 with a nice short RCA cable. Messy though and they would take two power sockets.
 
Feb 3, 2017 at 4:49 PM Post #5 of 24
The  Aune x1s is a possibility if I wait. Its sold out everywhere that will ship to me at the moment. Also that 10 ohm output impedance seems high. I finally got a pair of fidelio X2 at a fair price (also really hard to get in Ireland) and I'm having trouble taking them off. So low impedance is important!
 
Feb 4, 2017 at 10:02 AM Post #7 of 24
overhaze said:
 
I've wanted a Desktop O2/ODAC for a while now but its price to performance ratio is ruined by the fact I'd be hammered with taxes if I tried to import one from Mayflower or JDS Labs. Is there any single box solution out there easily available in Ireland/UK/Europe that is competitive with it? I could walk into a shop in the middle of Dublin and buy a Chord for over a grand but when it comes to value for money options seem limited.
Click to expand...

overhaze said:
  Same problem, its a US import. There is a Schiit EU which seems to be official but an uber stack would cost me almost €400. For comparison I could get SMSL Sanskrit and Fiio K5 off of Amazon uk for €237 with a nice short RCA cable. Messy though and they would take two power sockets.
Click to expand...

 
If you can spend that much for the Chord might as well look into the Violectric V100 with the optional DAC module.
 
Feb 4, 2017 at 10:47 PM Post #10 of 24
overhaze said:
  No I was saying it would be easy to buy ridiculously expense stuff but hard to get affordable stuff I could actually buy.
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Not much of a choice for your location though as you'll deal with taxes either way. There's Meier Audio but the Jazz doesn't have a DAC, and the DACcord is a flagship DAC for the flagship amp (and the only other DAC is on the battery powered DAC-HPamp, the PCStep), and even these charge a different price for the EU.
 
Still I'd much rather get Violectric or Meier since I believe you'll deal with less taxes (since they're HQ'd in the EU), since paying less in taxes arguably means you're getting better value than overpaying import fees and such. Also potentially less hassles getting them repaired if anything goes wrong, especially vs getting a more high value for the hardware Chinese unit only to get slapped with import taxes and shipping fees anyway (plus the delays in shipping it back for repair due to communication issues and shipping cost/distance).
 
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