[Marso]

I am Interessted in this DAC and have  a qeustion about the DA 300, can i control the Volume trough Windowsmixer (connected with usb) while i play games and talk to friends over TS?
I use my Fidelio X2 for all PC audio things and don´t want do switch between onboard and DAC the whole time.
 
I hope you can help me.

 

[evanft]

I'm just gonna go ahead and post my impressions from /r/headphones.
 
Intro

Recently, I've acquired a lot of hi-res music, specifically 24/192 PCM and DSD. My current DAC, the Schiit Modi, obviously can't handle these, so I've been converting them during playback in Foobar. Unfortunately, this conversion puts a lot of strain on my somewhat low-powered computer, so I've been looking around recently for a DAC that could play hi-res.

My first thought was to get a Modi 2+Loki, but having both DACs connected and switching between them looked like a pain in the ass (I'm extremely lazy), so I wanted a 1 box solution. I took a look at the iFi iDSD Nano and the Geek Out 450, but they were USB-powered (I wanted to avoid this) and the Geek Out has had some funkiness with its firmware.

Unfortunately, most of the good DSD/PCM DACs seem to be $500 or more, and that was honestly more than what I was willing to pay. But then I saw the DA-300USB, Denon's $500 DSD DAC, listed in the Head-Fi classifieds for only $275 shipped. I jumped on it immediately.

 

Build Quality/Appearance

The unit came very well packed in the original packaging. Inside was the usual paperwork along with a CD that contained the user manual. There was also a set of RCA cables, but oddly enough no USB cable. A stand and set of rubber feet are also included. This allows you to set it vertically or horizontally on your desk.

Despite being mostly plastic, the DAC itself feels very beefy and well built. I have a Denon receiver in my home theater, and the DA-300 gives me the same feeling of quality that the receiver does.

Something unique about the Denon is its OLED display. This display shows which input you're using, the incoming bitrate, and the volume of the headphone output. The super-high contrast ratio really makes it blend in seamlessly with the front of the unit. I'm very impressed with it.

I do have one complaint about the design, however. The power button on the front lights up when on, but the LED used is clearly on the yellow side of the white spectrum, so it doesn't quite match with the white in the display. This really only bother me because I work in automotive and we're constantly worried about cabin synergy. It's not really a big deal.

 

Setup

Installing the driver was easy. Getting DSD to work in Foobar only required installing a special DSD ASIO component and selecting it as the output. After I did this, playback was absolutely flawless at all sample rates.

 

Initial Sound Impressions

I fed the output of the DAC into my iFi iCan amp to my HD800s. Everything sounded great. I didn't detect any immediately noticeable issues or extra noise.

 

Direct Comparison to Current DAC

To compare the Denon and Modi directly, I setup J River to output both DACs at the same time and then switched between them by connecting an RCA switch to my amp's input. The only issues with this were that the Denon seems to output about 2.5-3 dB hotter than the Modi and the playback would sometimes fall out of sync if I was switching back and forth really fast between the two DACs. I fixed the volume difference by applying a volume reduction to the Denon in J River.

The two DACs sounded the same. I went through my usual wide variety of music, which included both great sounding stuff and terribly compressed death metal. I could not tell the two DACs apart at any time.

 

Other Stuff

At the Denon's MSRP, I really think it's missing some features. This thing should have RCA in to allow you to connect something like a turntable. I'd also like to see it be possible to act as a preamp since it already has the volume knob. The headphone amp could also be more powerful and it should have selectable gain.

 

Conclusion

For $500, the Denon is only OK. You can pick up some of the other solutions I mentioned above for about half that, and there's also the iFi iDSD Micro, which has a more powerful amp with adjustable gain levels for $500.

For $275, though, this thing is awesome. It offers great build quality, lots of inputs, and does all the hi-res I wanted. I highly recommend checking the used listings for one of these if you're in the market for a hi-res DAC.

 

[bardenthenry]

I have a DA300USB, too.
But there is noise if I turn the volume up about -6 dB.
How can I fix this problem?Buy a linear power supply?

 

[s4tch]

quoting myself from the nad viso hp50 thread, if anyone interested:
 

  denon da-300usb first impressions, after 3-4 hours of use.
 
gear used: desktop pc running win10 and foobar, xiaomi mi3 phone with hibymusic, marantz mcr610 for comparison, and obviously my nad viso hp50. files played: whatever i could find, from 128k mp3 to various flac and dsd files. some files were local, some were played from my nas via dlna.
 
connection, ergonomics, ease of use:
- the dac connects to both my pc and phone seamlessly, installation is pretty straight forward
- whether i use the phone or the pc as a source, makes no audible differences
- the dac played every format and bitrate i could find at home
- some clipping is present on the pc when skipping/changing tracks. i guess that's a foobar config issue, i'm new to that.
- i could configure the foobar to native dsd playing in about 3 minutes with no previous foobar experience; the little display on the denon provides some useful feedback about the stream format and bitrate, and that makes configuration a lot easier
- the dac's build and ergonomics are perfect for the price, the only minor nuisance being the somewhat slippery volume pot; a $0,01 rubber ring around the pot would make life a bit easier (3rd world problems, i know)
 
sound:
- the denon's fun
- dynamics are similar to the marantz, obviously way better than the phone
- both ends of the frequency response curve (sorry, i'm no expert in these terms, i mean lower bass, like below 60hz, and highs) came alive after a couple of hours of listening; highs are the only department the denon seems to be considerably better than the marantz
- soundstage seems to be on par with the marantz, wider and more stable than the phone alone. the same goes to headroom, sheer power, mids, resolution.
 
so basically, the denon sounds like the marantz, with some better extension at the higher register. denon and marantz are the same company after all, so the same fun, popular sound is expected from both of them. my final evaluation on the denon coming in a couple of weeks.
 
just on a sidenote: i've heard the audio-gd nfb-29 at a headphone/amp meeting at the weekend with the nad, and oh boy, did it sound awesome. just pure dynamics and transparency, with ease. just a tiny bit too analytical for my taste, still, it had me after 2 songs. also, the teac ha-501 (headphone amp only, not the dac or the dac/amp) had similar character, without the overwhelming dynamics of the audio-gd. both are better headamps than the denon or the marantz.
 
an other sidenote: hibymusic is a great free player for android, providing local, dlna or lan playback via an external dac.

 

[tpac]

Just picked up one of these for $220 from Adorama and trying to decide whether to keep it. I'm running a '14 macbook pro retina with a pretty decent built in dac and a pair of Sennheiser Momentum on-ears that I thought would be a good fit for the DA-300USB with their low 18-ohm impedance. After a few days of listening I'm still not sure if this is a huge upgrade over the MBP dac though.
 
Sources run the gamut from Spotify / Pandora HQ to 24 bit FLACs. Trying to acquire more of the content on this list at the moment mostly for testing. Taste is mostly WARP, KOMPAKT, Rock and more or less whatever's featured on pitchfork.
 
Worth keeping it?

 

[johangrb]

You got a great deal! I love mine as a backup to my other setups. It sounds great with Tidal & HD700s. A keeper (for now ).

 

[tpac]

  You got a great deal! I love mine as a backup to my other setups. It sounds great with Tidal & HD700s. A keeper (for now ).

Aren't the HD700s at 150 Ω a bit high impedance to be driven by this? I thought this was meant for Denon headphones and others in the same range < 30 Ω ?

 

[zaydon]

I got in on that $220 deal as well. I don't see much difference between this DAC and my Corda 2Move. The volume pots without scratching like the 2move and ya it has lots of inputs, but I think I'm getting my $220 back. The max volume output also seems a bit lower than the computer and/or the 2move.
 
Mac Mini with Denon D5000s.

 

[tpac]

  I got in on that $220 deal as well. I don't see much difference between this DAC and my Corda 2Move. The volume pots without scratching like the 2move and ya it has lots of inputs, but I think I'm getting my $220 back. The max volume output also seems a bit lower than the computer and/or the 2move.

 
Agreed that max volume output is surprisingly low. Am I wrong to assume that if volume output is on the low level of doable with 32 Ω cans that many many headphones with higher impedance would be unacceptably quiet without an additional amp?

 

[CoMaNZ]

I have one and it can't drive my AKG K7XX (though they are known for not being particularly easy to drive). However, it does drive my Senn HD595, Aiaiai TMA-2, Onkyo FC300, Takstar Pro 80 and Pioneer HDJ-500 well. To get my AKG's going I have to use the Denon purely as a DAC and run them off my NuForce HA-200.

 

[JBal4]

I have one and it can't drive my AKG K7XX (though they are known for not being particularly easy to drive). However, it does drive my Senn HD595, Aiaiai TMA-2, Onkyo FC300, Takstar Pro 80 and Pioneer HDJ-500 well. To get my AKG's going I have to use the Denon purely as a DAC and run them off my NuForce HA-200.

 


How did you like the Da300/Ha200 combo? I have ha200, which I love, but need a dac with more inputs.