which dac choose
Jul 4, 2018 at 5:52 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 10
J

joasjoas

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the dac will connect to the PC, I currently have an Asus DGX, and the DAC will be connected to a project polaris garage.
my budget is approximately 200$ if it is less better :).
My use is movies and gaming, mainly
For now after reading several post, it seems that these are fine, but I listen to other suggestions

SMSL M8A
Topping D50
TOPPING D30
jds ol dac
schiit modi uber
 
Jul 4, 2018 at 8:19 AM Post #2 of 10
Just my opinion, but I like my Modi 2 Uber and really like the sound. I run it off of a dedicated USB port and have had zero issues with it. Stays on all the time and just works.

The Topping D50 looks interesting, but I have read mixed reviews on the D30 as sounding harsh and not very musical.

I also urge you to look at reviews describing how they sound and not how they test. If a DAC sounds great, yet shows some errors on a chart, it doesn't make it a bad DAC....It might just show the person testing does not know what they are doing.
 
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Jul 4, 2018 at 3:45 PM Post #3 of 10
I would go for SMSL SU-8. It's basically a Topping D50 + XLR out + remote control, all at the same price! You missed the massdrop, but you can get it quickly from amazon.
 
Jul 5, 2018 at 10:07 AM Post #5 of 10
I'm still waiting on my D50, but I have been listening to my SU-8 and so far I love it. I noticed a large improvement in sound quality when I used the XLR outs but that's most likely due to the change from a passive preamp with rca to an active one with the XLR. The active Krell preamp sounds much better than the passive JDS Labs ol switcher in my setup
 
Jul 5, 2018 at 1:13 PM Post #6 of 10
Modi Uber is fantastic. SMSL DACs sound too bright to me presumably because of the filtering they use. This is especislly the case if the DAC supports DSD / higher bit rates.
 
Jul 6, 2018 at 4:36 AM Post #8 of 10
Jul 18, 2018 at 11:15 PM Post #10 of 10
I have the SMSL SU-8 and Topping D50. I have them both hooked to the same speakers and amp, but in different rooms and the SU-8 benefits from being hooked to my Krell preamp's balanced inputs and outs to my power amp. The D50 is using a JDS Labs ol switcher as a passive preamp for volume control. Even with the differences in the rooms acoustics and the different volume controls between the two Dacs they still sound extremely similar. I do not find them to be overly bright at all. I am using a Essence hifi class D power amp and some Def Tech sm55 speakers in the combos. The systems sound punchy down low and crisp up high. Mid bass is detailed and channel separation and imaging is superb. I've owned lots of audio equipment over the years from almost all of the big name reciever companies and some other high end seperates and speaker companies like Denon, Marantz, Krell, Revel, and Paradigm. The SMSL and Topping dacs both sound as good if not better than anything I've owned before. I generally say I don't hear much of a difference between dacs unless its a terrible design or defective product so unless your ears are super duper golden or your system for some reason does not mesh well with these then either will be a great small investment into real hifi. I did return a TEAC UD-301 for being one of the worst sounding pieces of audio equipment I've ever heard. Maybe mine was defective, but it had the most shrill and piercing highs that i've only ever experienced once before when I bought a $100 sony receiver on sale at Crutch-field which I also promptly returned. My input is get which ever one if interested that has features that fit your present and future needs.
 
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