[musicbased]

Hello, with my birthday coming up, i am looking at getting a dac/amp for my AKG K701s.
 
I use these for mixing mainly electronic music in my home studio,(mac with logic pro) and am looking for something that will give me the most accurate sound, rather than any colouration etc..
 
At the moment i'm just using the headphone out, on my toneport UX2, which is not too bad actually, but nothing special..
 
After a bit of searching, I have almost settled on the Yulong Dah 1 dac,  it seems to have very good reviews when paired with K701, but has anyone else got any other suggestions?
 
Budget is about £200 to £300 ...
 
Thanks! 

 

[Coolzo]

I find that the Focusrite Scarlett line of audio interfaces have a very accurate DAC for the price (the Scarlett 2i2 is all you'd need). It does 24/96 over USB 2.0 and has native ASIO drivers. It was a fairly significant upgrade from my Asus Xonar Essence ST, which was a tad warm with less detail retrieval. I'm not sure how the Scarletts compare to the HRT MusicStreamer series, Cambridge Audio DACs, or any other DAC in the $150-$400 price range besides the Xonar though.
 
I've found very little useful information regarding audio interface DACs compared to dedicated DACs on the internet...

 

[musicbased]

Thanks for that coolzo, i will look into the Focusrite stuff.
 
Yes, i wonder how audio interfaces compare to dedicated DACs, ive often wondered that about my Tone port.
I know it sounds much better out of the tone port than it does from my roland digital mixer HO for example, so it must be better somehow, but as you say,there doesn't seem to be much info on it.
 
Anyone know about this?
 
Tbh,  i hardly ever use the actual interface really ie recording guitars or mics in to mac, as i'm mainly using software instruments,(and i'm dreadful at the guitar!),so just a normal dac/amp would be ok too, just to get a good signal out of logic.

 

[JoelS87]

Heya Coolzo,
 
So I just recently bought the Scarlet 2i2 and it is a lot cheaper than the asus xonar st.
I'm really new to all of this and am having a hard time deciding if I should return the xonar st or the scarlet 2i2?
I got the scarlet because the guys at guitar center recommended it to go with my pair of m-audio bx8s.
But I am not sure if my headphones (Grado PS500) will sound worst or better on the asus xonar essence st?
 
Would appreciate any advice!
i use this machine for video editing but also gaming.
I prefer accurate, neutral sounds if that helps.
 
Thanks!!
Joel