[richard51]

This dac of Starting Point Systems is low cost,not in the thousand dollars, i have bid mine few bucks, and at most you will buy one for 100 bucks....And in my experience the control of vibration, EMI interference and room treatment, is way more important than the relative cost of audio product for the ultimate performance...

 

[richard51]

I'm currently using a tda1543 chipped tube dac.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/nixon/tubedac.html

Bought this dac used for $175 shipped. Spent 2 months with it , and my Theta Pro Gen V. I no longer have my Theta dac. The naturalness, and realism of the Nixon dac completely won me over. I found the Nixon dac was meatier in note presentation. More 3D than the Theta. The Nixon dac has a much more liquid like flow to the sound. Imaging is much more focused and the separation and placement of the images are more precise in their places. Holography is off the charts.

Anyone considering a tda1543 chipped dac. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you're hearing.

Very interesting testimony indeed thanks very much....

 

[Jimster480]

This dac of Starting Point Systems is low cost,not in the thousand dollars, i have bid mine few bucks, and at most you will buy one for 100 bucks....And in my experience the control of vibration, EMI interference and room treatment, is way more important than the relative cost of audio product for the ultimate performance...

I was not talking about the Starting point system's DAC, but the one for $10k that this other guy linked.
EMI Interference is not even a real thing for most DAC's these days since the power supplies are so clean and the chips don't create interference.

 

[Guidostrunk]

Very interesting testimony indeed thanks very much....

 

[richard51]

I was not talking about the Starting point system's DAC, but the one for $10k that this other guy linked.
EMI Interference is not even a real thing for most DAC's these days since the power supplies are so clean and the chips don't create interference.

I apologize , i read your post wrongly....

But for what i say about EMI, trust me i have made some experiments, and EMI, and vibrations, plague all audio products, at some degree... My greatest upgrade was exactly that, get rid of some of them ....Mechanical vibrations is also a plague.... No designer will say buy my thousand dollars products, but beware of vibrations and EMI with it....My experience is that this is the most important audiophile problems with the room treatment....

 

[gvl2016]

It is a shame but my Starting Point Systems DAC isn't getting much love lately. I switched to a darker sounding amp and now find that I prefer the more forward and clean sound of delta-sigma in this setup. Also the batteries no longer hold charge, hopefully it is just the batteries and not the charging circuit is done, however I'd only use it over a USB connection so not a big deal for my application.

 

[gvl2016]

"Turn off the LED lights, it will improve sound quality, just a bit...". This feature alone is worth 10 large, lol.

 

[earwego]

It is a shame but my Starting Point Systems DAC isn't getting much love lately. I switched to a darker sounding amp and now find that I prefer the more forward and clean sound of delta-sigma in this setup. Also the batteries no longer hold charge, hopefully it is just the batteries and not the charging circuit is done, however I'd only use it over a USB connection so not a big deal for my application.

What happens to the sound when the batteries get low - does the sound become distorted?

You also say it's no big deal as you are using it over a USB connection - does that mean this DAC draws power from USB and therefore bypasses the worry of depleting batteries as you listen? I notice that you get a max of 2 hours on the battery - but I would like to run it in over far longer periods than that if possible (I use Daphile on and old netbook which is Linux so I hope USB power can be drawn from that operating system).

 

[gvl2016]

My understanding it only runs on batteries when used with the optical/coax input. It's USB powered and not using batteries on USB connection, but the batteries charge from USB. I just noticed that now the DAC doesn't stay on for more than a couple of second if I push the power button while USB is disconnected, but it works fine still when USB is connected.

 

[earwego]

My understanding it only runs on batteries when used with the optical/coax input. It's USB powered and not using batteries on USB connection, but the batteries charge from USB. I just noticed that now the DAC doesn't stay on for more than a couple of second if I push the power button while USB is disconnected, but it works fine still when USB is connected.

OK thanks - but even you're not certain and you own this DAC how the power management works. I would have thought that SPS would have designed the DAC to sound excellent (i.e. via a clean battery source) when connected to a USB source such as a computer - as USB sources are becoming the fashion. A good test (if you don't mind) is to run the DAC purely on USB for, say, 4 hours, to see if the battery depletes or not - I would love to know if you don't mind testing this out for me. I would imagine the sound would become terribly distorted when (or if) the batteries start running dry.

Perhaps via USB while active and playing music it may run purely from battery, then when you stop playing music the system charges again - "but" if you play music for more than 2 hours continuously and it does run purely from battery the system will begin to distort after a length of time. It would be good to know. I do like the idea of batteries but not if it proves to be a pain.

 

[gvl2016]

I ran this DAC much longer than that over USB and it never ran out of juice which makes me think it never runs on batteries when in USB mode, you can speculate it uses batteries while it can and then switches to USB power automatically when empty but I doubt it and have no way to prove either way.

You can also run it on a 12-24V external power supply if so you wish.

 

[earwego]

I ran this DAC much longer than that over USB and it never ran out of juice which makes me think it never runs on batteries when in USB mode, you can speculate it uses batteries while it can and then switches to USB power automatically when empty but I doubt it and have no way to prove either way.

You can also run it on a 12-24V external power supply if so you wish.

OK - I admit - I've very recently got one and I'm using it - it sounds great but having used it for over two hours via connected USB from a Daphile optimised music server the thing ran out of juice (which is a shame) - not ideal for my circumstances - and was very evident as distortion kicked in. The question is - why does yours continue to play and mine run out of steam?

As I type this I have only just stopped playing music wondering if it will charge over the USB after, perhaps half and hour or so of stopping the music? I will wait and find out.

I want to know fully how the power management works on this device before I am totally happy.

 

[GearMe]

FWIW...I have the SPS Dac 3 and use it w/coax and the external power supply; works well with no issues

 

[earwego]

FWIW...I have the SPS Dac 3 and use it w/coax and the external power supply; works well with no issues

OK my primary source is USB and i guess you perhaps aren't 100% sure how the USB power managment works either seeing as you don't use it. I do have a USB/SPDIF converter but I shouldn't have to use it. But seeing as I want to know how this DAC works I will probably test the SPDIF out too so I know fully how this DAC operates.

 

[GearMe]

Makes sense...I try not to use USB when I can use Coax. You could also reach out to the DAC designer, Christophe Mariac, on eBay (leopar_lrdu3148rcta@members.ebay.fr). He seems very willing to provide info on his DAC. His store is http://stores.ebay.com/digitools/