[urbanhusky]

Hi,
 
since my (third) Asus Xonar Essence One is exhibiting weird problems too, I'm now starting to look for an alternative.
 
I'd love to like the XEO but the imbalanced, low resolution volume control and too high output for headphones as well as broken ASIO drivers aren't that fun. It also sometimes refuses to play certain frequencies until I switch between the inputs several times (eg. I hear no voices until I cycle the inputs at least once). This doesn't raise my confidence in the unit. Also, strangely, I find it lacking in bass lately (could be related to my frequency problem).
Therefore I'm now looking for alternatives.
 
I'd like to be able to drive headphones (low to high impedance) as well as my amp (via RCA). Asynchronous data transfer is something I'd like to have, non-upsampling behaviour (ie. no resampling of 44.1kHz to 192kHz) is a must-have. The DAC should work with ASIO as well as WASAPI on a Windows 7 x64 machine via USB. Sample and bitrates of up to 192/24 should be supported, must be supported up to 96/24.
TOSLINK support would be greatly appreciated (PCM, for the PS3).
 
My budget is roughly around the price of the ASUS (~420€) but I might be tempted to spend "a bit" more (ideally below 1000€), if I get a DAC that actually works.
 
I'm looking forward to your suggestions.
 
Best regards,
urbanhusky

 

[xtend]

I'm not sure about non-upsampling and the ASIO/WASAPI drivers since i use a Mac but my suggestion would be the Audiolab M-DAC.
 
It has async USB 96/24, Toslink & SPDIF inputs, balanced & RCA outputs, fixed/variable selectable and a good headphone amp and not lacking in bass...
 
Volume control is in 1dB steps.
 
Apart from that you could check out the Yulong D100 and the Matrix Mini-I, cheaper but i don't think they have async USB inputs.

 

[urbanhusky]

It's official now - I'm looking for an asynchronous USB DAC (WASAPI/ASIO drivers for Windows 7 x64) that offers at least up to 96kHz/24bit without resampling.
Must have headphone amp and separate RCA out. Separate volume controls would be neat, but aren't a hard requirement.
Optical (TOSLINK) input is a big bonus.
 
Price: I'd like to stay below 1000€, but heck. Anything but this piece of junk ASUS made is potentially worth it. The higher the price, the longer I'll just have to save money for it *shrugs*
 
So far I haven't found any information about the M-DAC whether or not it does upsampling - and that switchable filter stuff somehow just creeps me out.

 

[urbanhusky]

I'm now considering the Grace Design m903, does anyone have any objections or things I'd need to know about this unit?