Scrivs
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2009
- Posts
- 237
- Likes
- 12
Ok, so about 2 weeks ago I ordered the Dr. DAC2 DX digital to analog converter by Audiotrak on Ebay from Audiotrak's official seller called Gyrocom. (I believe the only available seller of new Audiotrack products)
I had to pay $375 dollars (around 310 euros) with free shipping, I transfered the money instantly and received a message by Gyrocom the next day saying that the DAC was dispatched to my address (yes, pretty quick) and I was also given an EMS tracking number with which I was able to trace the package.
So yes, everything went very well, quick dispatch of the package, fast replies to my questions from the seller, working tracking option... but then after three days I noticed that the package was stuck at the dutch customs here in Amsterdam waiting to get checked for any drugs or whatever
(which has nothing to do with the seller ofcourse, but with our authorities here. Not his fault 
).
Then I realised that I probably would have to pay something extra for all their (useless) effort aswell, but ok. It took them around 6 full days (!) to handle it all and to send it over to my local post office.
And finally, after a week of waiting, the postman arrived at my door with the package, but he wasnt allowed to hand it over to me untill I payed him for the customs ofcourse, which was a whopping amount of 80 (!) euros (around a 100 dollars).
But alright, nothing to do about it besides paying the man, so kinda pissed off I payed him the 80 euros and received the package.
(First and last time I bought something out of Korea)
Because there isn't realy that much to find about this DAC on the internet besides official product pages and a handfull of reviews I made some photos of it all for you to see how it was packed, whats inside the box and how it all looks.
So here it is:
Photo of the package, very well packed as you can see (maybe even a bit too good, took me 5 min to get all the tape off of it):
Inside is the device's box fully covered in bubblewrap (lots of it):
So here is the front of the (very good looking) box:
The back of the box:
Opening the box you see the multi-language manual (english, korean, japanese), taking that away you see the DAC itself packed in a protection bag and held together by two foam pads. To the right there is a bag with all the cables in it.
All in all a very clean and neat packaging.
Mind: the manual also comes with a Audiotrack brand sticker and 4 rubber pads to stick on the bottom of the DAC to keep it from moving around on your desk (very helpfull).
Content of the box:
(Manual, DAC and cables)
Everything apart:
(DAC - Bag with cables - Manual)
Opening up the bag with cables we see that there are three seperate cables and a sort of adapter that I have no idea of what it's for.
A power cable, an AC/DC adapter and the USB cable. (the power cable and AC/DC adapter go into eachother to form 1 power cable)
The Cables:
From L-R: AC/DC adapter - power cable - USB cable - small adapter or whatever.
Alright, finally on to the DAC itself.
The overal look of the DAC is just superb in my opinion, all black with realy nice white graphics. The word boring does not apply to this DAC, thats for sure.
When I opened the box I was fairly surprised about the size of the DAC, it is realy quite small, but weighs quite alot for its size (1320 grams). After all the pictures I've seen of the DAC on the internet I was expecting it to be a bit bigger.
I'm glad though about its size, fits perfectly on my desk now.
So here is the top of the DAC:
Very cool graphics, I believe this DAC has also won a price for best looking device btw...
Front of the DAC:
From L-R: On/Off button / Low Impedance Headphone Out (16-300 Ohms) / High Impedance Headphone Out (300-600 Ohms) / Digital In, Source and Output Switches / Volume Knob / Above this all is a row of LED lights that indicate the various sampling rates (from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz).
Back of the DAC:
From L-R: Analog Line Out / Analog Line In / Input for the power cable / Optical Output / USB Output / Digital Input (optical or Coaxial) which form S/PDIF.
Allright, thats the DAC.
I thought it might be nice to give you all a comparison for its size because it isnt realy good to see how big it realy is on the pictures and photos I saw on the internet. So here is a photo of the DAC taken from above with my iPod Touch next to it (a device that I guess everyone knows of how big it is).
The size comparison with iPod Touch 3G:
Allright, thats about it.
I hope that this was helpfull to anyone who is also considering getting this DAC. So far I cant realy say something about how it sounds yet because I haven't realy put many hours in it yet, but so far it sounds great and it gives quite alot of extra detail to my music played through both my monitors and headphone. Especially the sound of the bass from my woofer has cleared up quite alot, it is much nicer now and it fits better to the music.
But to get an idea of the quality of this DAC you are better of reading some reviews on the internet by professionals, such as Mike from Headfonia: http://www.headfonia.com/?p=4224
At last I would like to share two photos with you of how the DAC looks on my desktop right now, in my opinion realy nice
Check it out:
Another one: (Yes, those are indeed old Harry Potter books....)
Some last things that I would like to put out that I didnt know off when I was doing some research on the DAC or that I just recently found out after installing it all:
- The in-built DAC only works when you hook it up to your source (PC for example) via USB or S/PDIF (the coaxial or optical inputs) on the device, so if you are planning on using it via the analog in- and outputs only the DAC wont be used and the device will serve as an external soundcard with a headphone amplifier.
- Used via USB the DAC provides you with an upsampling rate of 24 bit / 96 kHz but via S/PDIF it gives an upsamplig rate of 24 bit / 192 kHz. Therefore using the DAC via S/PDIF will give you the best results.
- When used via USB the only output option is the Optical Out, so if you are planning on using the device with the USB input then make sure you got the correct cable for the Optical Out.
- When used with the analog in- and outputs only (in which case the DAC does not work) you see the 'Unlock' LED burning next to the LED of the various sampling rates, this way you can check if the DAC is realy upsampling your signal or not. If on the other hand any of the other LED's are burning (for examplte the 44.1 kHz LED) you know for sure that the DAC is doing it's job.
- You don't need to install any software or drivers for this DAC when used with USB, your PC should recognise the device immediately so it's just plug and play.
Thats it, I hope you all liked it and that it was helpfull.
Reactions are most welcome ofcourse and please correct me if I made any mistakes in explaining things (I'm not a pro).
- Scrivs
I had to pay $375 dollars (around 310 euros) with free shipping, I transfered the money instantly and received a message by Gyrocom the next day saying that the DAC was dispatched to my address (yes, pretty quick) and I was also given an EMS tracking number with which I was able to trace the package.
So yes, everything went very well, quick dispatch of the package, fast replies to my questions from the seller, working tracking option... but then after three days I noticed that the package was stuck at the dutch customs here in Amsterdam waiting to get checked for any drugs or whatever
(which has nothing to do with the seller ofcourse, but with our authorities here. Not his fault ).Then I realised that I probably would have to pay something extra for all their (useless) effort aswell, but ok. It took them around 6 full days (!) to handle it all and to send it over to my local post office.
And finally, after a week of waiting, the postman arrived at my door with the package, but he wasnt allowed to hand it over to me untill I payed him for the customs ofcourse, which was a whopping amount of 80 (!) euros (around a 100 dollars).
But alright, nothing to do about it besides paying the man, so kinda pissed off I payed him the 80 euros and received the package.
(First and last time I bought something out of Korea)
Because there isn't realy that much to find about this DAC on the internet besides official product pages and a handfull of reviews I made some photos of it all for you to see how it was packed, whats inside the box and how it all looks.
So here it is:
Photo of the package, very well packed as you can see (maybe even a bit too good, took me 5 min to get all the tape off of it):
Inside is the device's box fully covered in bubblewrap (lots of it):
So here is the front of the (very good looking) box:
The back of the box:
Opening the box you see the multi-language manual (english, korean, japanese), taking that away you see the DAC itself packed in a protection bag and held together by two foam pads. To the right there is a bag with all the cables in it.
All in all a very clean and neat packaging.
Mind: the manual also comes with a Audiotrack brand sticker and 4 rubber pads to stick on the bottom of the DAC to keep it from moving around on your desk (very helpfull).
Content of the box:
(Manual, DAC and cables)
Everything apart:
(DAC - Bag with cables - Manual)
Opening up the bag with cables we see that there are three seperate cables and a sort of adapter that I have no idea of what it's for.
A power cable, an AC/DC adapter and the USB cable. (the power cable and AC/DC adapter go into eachother to form 1 power cable)
The Cables:
From L-R: AC/DC adapter - power cable - USB cable - small adapter or whatever.
Alright, finally on to the DAC itself.
The overal look of the DAC is just superb in my opinion, all black with realy nice white graphics. The word boring does not apply to this DAC, thats for sure.
When I opened the box I was fairly surprised about the size of the DAC, it is realy quite small, but weighs quite alot for its size (1320 grams). After all the pictures I've seen of the DAC on the internet I was expecting it to be a bit bigger.
I'm glad though about its size, fits perfectly on my desk now.
So here is the top of the DAC:
Very cool graphics, I believe this DAC has also won a price for best looking device btw...
Front of the DAC:
From L-R: On/Off button / Low Impedance Headphone Out (16-300 Ohms) / High Impedance Headphone Out (300-600 Ohms) / Digital In, Source and Output Switches / Volume Knob / Above this all is a row of LED lights that indicate the various sampling rates (from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz).
Back of the DAC:
From L-R: Analog Line Out / Analog Line In / Input for the power cable / Optical Output / USB Output / Digital Input (optical or Coaxial) which form S/PDIF.
Allright, thats the DAC.
I thought it might be nice to give you all a comparison for its size because it isnt realy good to see how big it realy is on the pictures and photos I saw on the internet. So here is a photo of the DAC taken from above with my iPod Touch next to it (a device that I guess everyone knows of how big it is).
The size comparison with iPod Touch 3G:
Allright, thats about it.
I hope that this was helpfull to anyone who is also considering getting this DAC. So far I cant realy say something about how it sounds yet because I haven't realy put many hours in it yet, but so far it sounds great and it gives quite alot of extra detail to my music played through both my monitors and headphone. Especially the sound of the bass from my woofer has cleared up quite alot, it is much nicer now and it fits better to the music.
But to get an idea of the quality of this DAC you are better of reading some reviews on the internet by professionals, such as Mike from Headfonia: http://www.headfonia.com/?p=4224
At last I would like to share two photos with you of how the DAC looks on my desktop right now, in my opinion realy nice
Check it out:
Another one: (Yes, those are indeed old Harry Potter books....)
Some last things that I would like to put out that I didnt know off when I was doing some research on the DAC or that I just recently found out after installing it all:
- The in-built DAC only works when you hook it up to your source (PC for example) via USB or S/PDIF (the coaxial or optical inputs) on the device, so if you are planning on using it via the analog in- and outputs only the DAC wont be used and the device will serve as an external soundcard with a headphone amplifier.
- Used via USB the DAC provides you with an upsampling rate of 24 bit / 96 kHz but via S/PDIF it gives an upsamplig rate of 24 bit / 192 kHz. Therefore using the DAC via S/PDIF will give you the best results.
- When used via USB the only output option is the Optical Out, so if you are planning on using the device with the USB input then make sure you got the correct cable for the Optical Out.
- When used with the analog in- and outputs only (in which case the DAC does not work) you see the 'Unlock' LED burning next to the LED of the various sampling rates, this way you can check if the DAC is realy upsampling your signal or not. If on the other hand any of the other LED's are burning (for examplte the 44.1 kHz LED) you know for sure that the DAC is doing it's job.
- You don't need to install any software or drivers for this DAC when used with USB, your PC should recognise the device immediately so it's just plug and play.
Thats it, I hope you all liked it and that it was helpfull.
Reactions are most welcome ofcourse and please correct me if I made any mistakes in explaining things (I'm not a pro).
- Scrivs
