Not to add to anyone else's ongoing parsing of "which of these 23 <$200 dacs is my best move", but I'm trying to be disciplined enough to wait and see how the new entry from NuPrime (uDSD) @ $179 also compares to the idsd nano. While I hope to be doing my own in-home evaluating of newer affordable dacs soon, I get a lot of useful input reading here in both the dissent and agreement posters share on various topics. And there are just so many options out there--ebay alone can be a curse as much as a boon.
I am also following the newest ifi release, the idac2, which is less portable and more desktop. Portability/headphone use in a new dac being nice, but a very low priority for me currently v. SQ and file support, and maybe even connective flexibility. The last reasonable speculation I saw on the price put it around $350, which would def be my ceiling before I'd find myself looking then at the next level of $500-$600 dacs. Yet I don't want to just buy "good enough" for $200 in a fast-developing and very competitive field if a significant SQ advantage is combined with a more future-proof or category leading build design for another $100 or so.
Tough being the audiophile on a very tight budget (I had many years where it wasn't a concern, so I am not bitching) and yet there has never been a better time for such.
