[matanoosh]

Zhalou is mediocre at best. metallic sound and oversampling which makes it sound analytical and artificial.
btw, i heard there are zhalou's with usb inputs. converting spdif to usb is a murder; usb carries a much better signal than spdif. or at least that's what my rwa isabellina claims when you feed it computer usb vs. squeezebox spdif

 

[moon unit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zank /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've actually had this DAC (v2) for about 2-3 months now. I needed something for audio setup for living room, which is basically my NAD C372 int amp, hooked to B&W 684's, and connected to my mac mini and 46 inch lcd. no surround sound, just needed a lsitening jukebox type system for my massive mp3 collection as my cd's have been gathering dust since mp3;s are so much more conveinent. initially i had my mini connected simply wiht line out to stereo in on amp, and as expected sound was WEAK. volume half way would still not produce any sort of decent sound. I then got this DAC, and as can be expected that alone is a world of a difference. while i realize thats not a fair comparison and most people want to compare DAC's, i dont really have experience with any other dac's and am a casual lister. For me, this little device is perfect, didn't cost too much and produces sound worth every penny it cost. while i do realize the trade off is paying $300 for good sound plus miniaturization, or $300 for possibly better sound in a bigger box, i think in terms of sound this little bugger would be hard to beat in this price range. I would suggest this to anyone that wants to step up from simple line out to rca plugs. But if you want to replace another dac with this one, i am not sure if you'd get anything in terms of sound quality improvement, for that id defer the issue to some other experts that have given this thing a more thoroughly extended listen than i usually have time for. The sound ofcourse got better over time as others have commected. The base on this thing is surprisingly heavy. While i sometimes don't trust my own judgement when it comes to audio tests, i do have friends from the music business with very very highly trained ears, andi have heard shocked gasps from them at times when the bass really kicks in as to how good these speakers are. ofcourse we all know without that little dac (or any dac for that matter), these speakers would not produce this kind of punchy sound from mp3's, so this dac does do an amazing job of transporting the sound. At some point i'd like to compare this to some other dac's in the price range to be more objective and maybe figure out my upgrade path if needed, and i'm pretty sure it will compare favourably. one review online compared this favourably even to approx $1000 dac's. For now though suffice to say as someone looking for a first dac, this one would be difficult to beat in terms of convenience or sound quality. ofcourse the downside is it only works via usb and has no optical in or line in connection which i think other dac's do. I've never really felt id need that anyway. without comparing thi unit to others, i cant say i know of any downsides as such. while the sound is clean and crisp with good quality audio, there are times when i feel my system could be pushed further and i feel its being underpowered by the source. This could be a limitation of connecting a computer system to a stereo sound system, a limitation of dac's in general, this specific dac, or just simply maybe my amp and speakers not being the best fit together. as this is my first sound system of the non low-end variety, i dont have a cd player hooked up to it so can't compare with that sound, or the sound of other amps and speakers. all i know is that all in all it was a worthwhile investment into this dac, and since i plan to keep my speakers and most probably the amp (unless i can get a rotel) for a while to come, unless it can get substantially better sound from another unit in the same price category give or take a couple of hundred bucks, im totally happy with this unit and setup.

Thanks for the review zank.

I don't know what size MP3s you have on file but if they are 128kbps you will see a big improvement in sound quality with lossless files, even 192kbps MP3s would be a significant step up. Your amp and speakers are fine, in fact more than fine, no need to replace those.

 

[zank]

yes with 128 i can definitely feel the sound very lacking but moving up to 192/256/320 is a huge improvement. have lots of 128's since thats how i initially ripped them my recent ones are all 320 or flac. the problem with flac is with the mini it can be tricky playing them. i use FLUKE to play flac files in itunes but they stutter sometimes and theres no other decent quality mp3 player for mac (i tried cog, very buggy), so i try to stick with 320 mostly. the biggest thing i miss from my windows days is winamp.

 

[donunus]

right now, what dacs would be on par with the devilsound at a lower cost... say $160? Does one exist ?

 

[Rico67]

Devild dac sound natural and rich.
have a lake in the definition of mediums but sound quite homogenous.
pleasant sound but not a great separation, ideal foe people who looks for a non agressive sound.

Need near 300 hours of burning time to be on the top.

 

[roker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clutz /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Keces-151 DAC is based on the PCM2706/7 (can't remember which) DAC chip. It is a remarkably unremarkable chip. I really don't understand why this DAC has such an impressive reputation here.

It's all about implementation. It has an impressive reputation because it sounds good.

I bet you haven't even sat down and listened to a Keces 151