[abyrvalg]

Does it exist? I am not even trying to get a battery-powered portable DAC\AMP with spdif with descent sound anymore (I mean something better than ibasso, which I consider rather entry-level). I am ready to get a mini-dac\amp (a size of h140 or something like that) with external 12V supply and build a battery pack. What I need is a good quality (OK, OK, I am not trying to get an audiophile sound, but something better than D10). I have my h140 modded to output coax spdif, so toslink is not important for me, but coax spdif input is.

Anyone can point in the direction of REALLY high quality portable dac\amp - preferably battery powered (but like I said if the size is small, I can build an external battery power supply)? Cost is not an object. The SQ is priority.

 

[estreeter]

Cost not an object, eh ? I think you need to consider 'transportable' over 'portable' - I like my Topaz' Toslink in just fine, but this is the sort of thing you should be looking at:

Products > Isabellina - Red Wine Audio

Vinnie is a regular here - he will soon tell you what it would take to shrink the Isabellina down to the size of the Topaz. Personally, I think he has done a superb job to get it to its current size:

12" width x 9" depth x 3.5" height (including feet)

 

[bakhtiar]

There are Professional Sound Recorder Sony PCM-D1 and PCM-D50 with spdif in/out...

 

[abyrvalg]

I did not mean transportable. I mean rather portable. The one you can, theoretically, put in the pocket (even with an extra battery module). Isabellina is not "pocketable" even with rather large pockets.

So, I should have added something like "With the adequate size not too muct than iriver h140"

About Sony. D1 is waaaay toooooo large. I used to have D50, and liked it, although line out sounded better than phone out. However, lack of compatibility with SD cards made it worthless and I sold it - it was a real PITA to juggle with all those stupid memory sticks and\or micro-sd with adaptors... Using it as a dac\amp.... mmmm... probably not too good idea because like I said, SQ over headphone out, while good, was worse than it's line out, so it would require yet another box (external amp) to play well. BTW it only has toslink (optical) in and out, no coaxial.

I want to keep my i140 as a transport. It has a 120 gigs hard drive and new 2200 mah battery, which is plenty enough for me and my flacs. So I am looking for GOOD small size dac\amp that I could connect to h140 via coaxial spdif and enjoy my collection on the go