What do you guys think of this supposedly USB AMP DAC?

[lucasdepalma]

Hi y'all!

I'm wondering, what do you make of this USB AMP DAC? I'll add the link to it below. It's $40 approximately ($6.500 argentine pesos). Would it be somewhat similar to a Fiio E10k for example? I mean, like a cheap but acceptable replacement? Would you recommend it? I own a pair of Samson SR950's and my motherboard's ALC887 is not as tolerable as I thought it'd be.

This is the USB AMP DAC: https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.a...cking_id=da165abc-18b2-434d-94b0-f483223ef159


Thank you very much!

 

[lucasdepalma]

bump

 

[tomb]

Just my personal opinion, but you'd do better simply using a smartphone. The connector is not made for a PC, while I'm certain you could get adapter plugs. It looks made to compete with Apple's lightning connector, which I thought was a bad idea anyway.

98dB is not great as a S/N metric for a DAC. Chances are, they're quoting the DAC chip by itself (common for USB powered DACs), which means it's really bad. Most rudimentary DAC chips have a S/N of 110 or 120 dB, some even higher.

As for an amp, you're not going to get anything appreciably better than a smartphone without a power supply. The power supply in a USB connection is notoriously noisy and is limited to 5V and 100ma (for a unit load, not charging), I believe, by the USB specification itself. That's very little current available, even for very efficient headphones. The voltage swing would be limited to +or- 2.5V as a theoretical maximum, with the actual much lower than that.

Bottom line, there's no cheap shortcut if you want high-fidelity sound quality.

 

[lucasdepalma]

Just my personal opinion, but you'd do better simply using a smartphone. The connector is not made for a PC, while I'm certain you could get adapter plugs. It looks made to compete with Apple's lightning connector, which I thought was a bad idea anyway.

98dB is not great as a S/N metric for a DAC. Chances are, they're quoting the DAC chip by itself (common for USB powered DACs), which means it's really bad. Most rudimentary DAC chips have a S/N of 110 or 120 dB, some even higher.

As for an amp, you're not going to get anything appreciably better than a smartphone without a power supply. The power supply in a USB connection is notoriously noisy and is limited to 5V and 100ma (for a unit load, not charging), I believe, by the USB specification itself. That's very little current available, even for very efficient headphones. The voltage swing would be limited to +or- 2.5V as a theoretical maximum, with the actual much lower than that.

Bottom line, there's no cheap shortcut if you want high-fidelity sound quality.

Thank you so much for your response. Alright, I'll try and save for a Fiio E10k, end of discussion. Thing is, Fiio is so expensive here in Argentina. You guys here always talk about Fiio as a "budget option" and it's not that at all here lol
Again, thank you very much for your help @tomb

 

[PurpleAngel]

Hi y'all!
I'm wondering, what do you make of this USB AMP DAC? I'll add the link to it below. It's $40 approximately ($6.500 argentine pesos). Would it be somewhat similar to a Fiio E10k for example? I mean, like a cheap but acceptable replacement? Would you recommend it? I own a pair of Samson SR950's and my motherboard's ALC887 is not as tolerable as I thought it'd be.
This is the USB AMP DAC: https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.a...cking_id=da165abc-18b2-434d-94b0-f483223ef159 Thank you very much!

For $55-$60 (USD), I would go for the iBasso DC-03 (or DC-04).