DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 Hey there, being a believer in Quality DAC's i am looking for peoples opinions on DAC's they have tried. I have had my fair use with burr browns multiple and common chips around today, here are a couple. Burr-Brown PCM1796 (D2x) Burr-Brown PCM 1792A (STX) Couple of head units with burr brown (JVC,ALPINE) I am looking atm into a DAC magic which has a wolfson 8740 and i have not listened to any wolfson before but i hear great things so i am excited, i also see a lot of great reports of cirrus. Anyone know any they have heard of before or know any with perhaps some of the high end dacs, i would like to find some with a wolfson 8741 as they are praised as flagship. xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 The chip may not be the most important thing in a DAC. There are good and bad DACs made with any of the chips you listed. What inputs do you need? If USB async is very important. The best converters I have heard have all been firewire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 big topic. let´s start with price range, there are a variety of candidates depending on your selection of pricing. let me know what range you are thinking about and I will list some candidates with comments. the chip used is only one factor, the implementation of the chip has a huge effect on the sound, I would argue that implementation may have more effect 0on sound than the core DAC chip. regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 The chip may not be the most important thing in a DAC Right on. I am of the opinion that most of the audible difference, if any, between modern DAC units is in the analog output stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 I understand about other contributing factors such as circuitry design, op-amps quality capacitors etc but the signal is only as good as its weakest link, so a good dac chip is needed in order for the rest of its circuitry to be beneficial wouldn't you agree ?. I am wanting to spend about 700-1000 US on a nice dac. EDIT forgot about interconnects, i need two optical connections, one from the tv and one from my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 the bel canto 3.5 mk II is fantastic... really expensive but fantastic! MHDT Havana is my favorite tube DAC. Grant Fidelity and HRT streamer + are great for the money. The Dacmagic was great but a touch on the bright side for me. I'd say the Grant Fidelity is the best deal. EDIT: - for your price range I'd give the Havana a serious look or better yet a used bel canto 1.5. I understand the Benchmark dac1 is pretty nice too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 EDIT forgot about interconnects, i need two optical connections, one from the tv and one from my computer. the computer can use USB which is superior to optical or coax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 iv seen a bel canto around before and was interested, i might look for one. what model of the grant fidelity did you mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 EDIT forgot about interconnects, i need two optical connections, one from the tv and one from my computer. the computer can use USB which is superior to optical or coax. um it should all be the same, if anything usb would be the least qualifying due to it having the least capable bandwidth overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 dynamic range of 123db. less than 300 bucks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUDIOTRAK-DR-DAC2-DX-MUSES-Digital-to-Analog-Converter-DAC-/120861253567?pt=US_Signal_Processors_Rack_Effects&hash=item1c23e45fbf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 EDIT forgot about interconnects, i need two optical connections, one from the tv and one from my computer. the computer can use USB which is superior to optical or coax. um it should all be the same, if anything usb would be the least qualifying due to it having the least capable bandwidth overall. less jitter with USB. with optical the Digital data has to be converted to optical....then sent to the DAC...then processed thru the optical receiver...then introduced to the DAC chip as Digital. With USB the data goes directly to the DAC chip ad Digital information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 I have the Grant fidelity TubeDAC-09 for a bedroom computer and tv setup. The now have the Dac11 or something like that. Ships from Hong Kong. It has quite a few inputs and features for the $. You can even try a little tube rolling if you like. The Western Electric 396a was my favorite! As far as USB... some of these are better than others. Sometimes I could tell no difference and with others I think the optical had the edge. I believe that these differences can have way more to do with the source I'm plugging in. For example If I have a noisy power from my computer that creates a ground loop hum (even when all is on the same circuit) whenever I plug in the USB, the optical is a nice way to decouple that wire connection with the audio system. If you don't have optical at the computer you could get a quality USB converter like the musical fidelity Vlink or check out bel canto's new converters. USB might work fine for you by itself. You would spend as much or more on the converter as you did the dac so I would try this in stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 yep...components play a role....here are some spec's. I would be interested in seeing anything better at any price....please post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 From my research and discussion i never found anyone who could prove that jitter really made a difference, i think that the distortion that people claim jitter has on a signal is still far below any snr distortion left over by the chain so its in audible. That DAC you showed looks top notch il have a look into that thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 here's another that I like. Emotiva XDA-1. Sepcs are not as good....but decent. price often on sale for 275. list is 350. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 another would be the EAD 7000 mkIII. One of the best DAC's ever made....list price 2200 to 2400 depending on XLR vs RCA. They are out of production but pop up on ebay for 600 to 800 bucks. The MK III has the Digital flywheel. dont buy a MK I or MK II. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 Thanks for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 last one....if you want something cheap....this will do both optical and USB in. spec's are good enough for tube amps and vintage solid state. would not be my first choice for newer amps with super high spec's. the price .....50 bucks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/MUSE-Mini-24Bit-192Khz-Coaxial-Optical-USB-Input-DAC-Headphone-Out-Silver-/320946270611?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab9e37193 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 here's another that I like. Emotiva XDA-1. Sepcs are not as good....but decent. price often on sale for 275. list is 350. The XDA-1 is no longer available from Emotiva. They do show up pre-owned fairly often at $150 to $175. Many who bought the XDA-1 (myself included) were disappointed with the fact that the USB input could not handle higher bit rates. There is talk of a new DAC (XDA-2?) coming but no word of when. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 16, 2012 Author Share Posted September 16, 2012 From what i can see they supported 16 bit @ 48khz ?, whats more to need than that. Any higher and you gain nothing its just myths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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