[chairs]

running it with no problems from a late 2012 macbook pro retina (which is to be expected, i guess, since the two usb ports on my laptop are both usb 3.0).
 
i have to say, though, that i'm noticing a negative change in sound sig switching from a generic mini-usb cord i had lying around (bought it a few months ago for like $5 at best buy as a replacement phone charging cord) to the included mini-usb cord - and i've always been a non-believer when it comes to cables and cords. i really don't like the included mini-usb cord because, for some reason, i'm perceiving that it adds a little hardness and sibilance to the sound - just enough to grate on me. i'm rather sensitive to sibilance, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. regardless, the included mini-usb cord has now become my charging cord and my old charging cord has become my dedicated dacport slim cord.

 

[sheldaze]

I am unfamiliar with the MassDrop deal and the included USB cable. The DACport HD did not include a cable. Perhaps your BestBuy cable is better than the MassDrop provided cable, if in fact CEntrance did not provide the cable?

 

[yavormoskov]

Yes, it is fantastic. It worked on my PC ultrabook even without installing the driver, yes this is correct. But on the desktop PC it started only after I installed it. Both have Win 8.1. Very weird. Also, it works with all my usb ports 2.0 and 3.0 and even plugged in usb hubs. It drives my Denon AH-MM400, Philips Fidelio L2 and German Maestro phones better than any other super portable DAC, a lot better than geek 750 anyway. I watched a whole IL Divo concert in HD from London with this bad boy plugged in and could not believe what I hear. 

 

[moedawg140]

  Yes, it is fantastic. It worked on my PC ultrabook even without installing the driver, yes this is correct. But on the desktop PC it started only after I installed it. Both have Win 8.1. Very weird. Also, it works with all my usb ports 2.0 and 3.0 and even plugged in usb hubs. It drives my Denon AH-MM400, Philips Fidelio L2 and German Maestro phones better than any other super portable DAC, a lot better than geek 750 anyway. I watched a whole IL Divo concert in HD from London with this bad boy plugged in and could not believe what I hear. 

Glad you're liking it.  I agree, it does a great job with driving headphones!  Enjoy!
 

 

[morinu]

I am listening Jazz on my DACport Slim (it sounds so good) while reading about the new Bifrost and the new Delta-Sigma version uses the K4490 chip... the same one in the DACport.  

 

[Hi-Fi EDU]

  ...i have to say, though, that i'm noticing a negative change in sound sig switching from a generic mini-usb cord i had lying around ... i really don't like the included mini-usb cord because, for some reason, i'm perceiving that it adds a little hardness and sibilance to the sound - just enough to grate on me. i'm rather sensitive to sibilance, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 
Completely agree on the micro-usb cable MassDrop sent out late. I thought it was just me but compared to the cable from my ol' Nokia phone, I also perceive that subtle hardness/sibilance when using the cable MD sent. It may be below average for this function unfortunately. No surprises which cable I stuck with.
 
Otherwise, I've been enjoying DACport Slim quite a bit. Installation on USB 3.0 in Win 7 was mostly smooth for me. Compared to my notebook's onboard: separation is cleaner, details are more accentuated and soundstage has more air/width. I'm glad I took the chance on this impressive little device.

 

[TheVortex]

Had to pay custom charges of £20.77 to release mine
 
Anyways, mine wouldn't work on the USB2 ports as it kept doing that connecting/disconnecting noise. Works perfect on USB3 first attempt. Using it with a factory PS4 controller charge cable.
 
Sounds great with AKG K712Pro, will do further testing and report back. Tested with Windows 7 Pro 64bit 

 

[Hi-Fi EDU]

Sounds great with AKG K712Pro, will do further testing and report back. Tested with Windows 7 Pro 64bit 

 
Nice. Out of curiosity, what gain setting and how far on the volume wheel are you going to get comfortable listening levels for you? I'm interested in those headphones and I'd like to know how the Slim pairs with them. I'm also looking forward to your impressions in general after your testing.

 

[Neotribal]

I ran into a ton of trouble getting the DACport Slim set up on my office PC, but finally got it functional after a few days(!). Dave was really eager to help on the Massdrop discussion page and via email, but I mostly sorted it out on my own (Driver issues).

I'll copypasta my responses from the MassDrop page here, in case it can be of help to anyone:
 

"Possible fix to help some Windows 7 users: Took me a few days, but finally got this working on my PC after resolving 2 separate issues:
 
1.) My Windows 7 64 bit machine would not install the driver at all, it would fail installation with an "error 15: Access Denied". Ended up being a Windows permissions issue... I was a member of the Administrators Security Group not the standard Users Security Group. The folder where the driver is stored explicitly required membership to that group (seems like this may have been a weird issue in how I created my account on the PC, this PC is part of an Active Directory domain)

 
2.) After successful driver installation, Windows Device Manager refused to acknowledge that the driver was digitally signed, even though it clearly was signed with valid certificates. This was causing the driver to not load properly when plugging in the DAC. In a normal situation, you would fix this by installing all available Windows Updates, which incorporates a security patch to address this, but in my case the Windows Update Checker was not acknowledging that I was missing this patch. to manually fix this you need to install two Microsoft Security Advisory patches in a particular order: KB3035131 and then KB3033929. Google those and install the associated .msu files to fix..."  <SNIP>

 

 
...and...

 
 
Quote:

"Regarding the USB cables and why some might not be able to get it working... cables can significantly impact mobile device charging speed because of their capacity to transmit electricity (they have a data side and a charging side). I imagine that this directly relates to how much power is being provided to the DACport slim by the USB port... Most crappy USB cables are 28/28 (the number = cable thickness measured in "gauge" or "ga". the lower the number the thicker). 28ga usb cables handle roughly 500 milliamps of power, a 24ga (over 50% thicker) cable can handle about 2 amps..." <SNIP>

They stated in a comment that the DACport Slim draws less than 500mw and the cable I got from MD was 23/30, which should be fine for powering the unit. They stated that they believe some of the connectivity issues actually a software issue and that the patch should be out "soon"

ANYWAYS, it sounds awesome and is much less conspicuous than the FiiO E17 I used to keep on my desk at work.

 

[TheVortex]

I am using low gain, maybe around 65% on the volume is a comfortable listening volume for me. I also own the following headphones/earphones when I get time to test them : AKG K7xx, Sennheiser HD 558, Hyper X cloud gaming headset also Macaw GT100s, Soundmagic e10 and AKG K323 xs.
 
Note: Dacport slim gets really warm to the touch and works amazing for binaural recordings that I tested it with on youtube.

 

[Riisalat]

Can anyone try the centrance as A DAC only and post a comparison? Im wondering if should use this or get a modi 2 for my desktop rig.

 

[Neotribal]

Can anyone try the centrance as A DAC only and post a comparison? Im wondering if should use this or get a modi 2 for my desktop rig.

I can test it out with a FiiO e12 , but won't have access to the gear again until next week. Hopefully I'll remember and post back

 

[peter123]

 

[Dsnuts]

How you liking that sound Peter?

 

[peter123]

How you liking that sound Peter?

So far so good

It's still very early but there's no doubt that this is an excellent sounding unit. I won't be able to do any proper ab with the GO720 and Lancea until next weekend due to an upcoming job trip but the impression now is that the Slim is more entertaining than both.

The CKR9LTD's sound crazy good with it.

I absolutely love the volume control as well.

It came to $150 delivered after tax here in Norway and it's definitely worth every cent imo.

Edit: although it gets quite hot the GO720 is definitely worse in this aspect so I see no need to worry about it.