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Inexpensive DAC Recommendations


KeithMcGowan

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Hey all,

 

I was hoping for some budget DAC recommendations. Hoping for some thoughts at a couple price points, so maybe a cheap (<$150) and value (<$400). I used a Cambridge Audio DacMagic years ago and thought it was pretty nice sounding for the money. That's my only reference on value DACs.

 

So, whatcha got?  Thanks for any suggestions!

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There's a wyred4sound day for sale in the garage section for a reasonable price... even if the seller is a bit of a child. It might be a little more than you upper end but it's probably well worth the price of admission... though to be honest, you really need to get spendy to reach the elevated audio nirvana of digital reproduction. 

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I'm still rockin my Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2. $250 bucks, upgrade to discrete opamps and a NOS 5670 tube and two years later this thing still impresses the hell out of me for a total of just over $500 bucks.

In fact, I just scored a couple more NIB/NOS GE 5670 5 Star white lettered tubes and should get them in a few days.[emoji106][emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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15 hours ago, KeithMcGowan said:

Hey all,

 

I was hoping for some budget DAC recommendations. Hoping for some thoughts at a couple price points, so maybe a cheap (<$150) and value (<$400). I used a Cambridge Audio DacMagic years ago and thought it was pretty nice sounding for the money. That's my only reference on value DACs.

 

So, whatcha got?  Thanks for any suggestions!

First  thing popped into my head was the Cambridge DAC Magic Plus. nice sound and doubles as a digital pre-amp, would be  a good choice as you already heard it and liked the sound.

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8 hours ago, pbphoto said:

Another vote for a used Channel Islands VDA2 w/power supply.  Also the Schiit DACs are great bang for the buck.

I have never heard the Schiit but read countless good reviews. They get a little confusing with all permutations of models. I will buy one someday if I do not save up for a Benchmark.

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On 11/17/2018 at 9:31 PM, KeithMcGowan said:

Hey all,

 

I was hoping for some budget DAC recommendations. Hoping for some thoughts at a couple price points, so maybe a cheap (<$150) and value (<$400). I used a Cambridge Audio DacMagic years ago and thought it was pretty nice sounding for the money. That's my only reference on value DACs.

 

So, whatcha got?  Thanks for any suggestions!

Sorry if I missed it but what's the rest of your system look like? 

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After researching for some time I settled on a Topping D50. I think I paid around 190 for it after discounts on ebay. Personally, I am very pleased with the sound and its capabilities for what I paid for it. The sound is very clean, the unit feels solidly built, the chipset is fantastic, and the built-in filters seem to work above expectations. As a bonus, it does not require any special power to handle phone audio, which I like. 

 

 

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Topping D30 - about $110 on Amazon. I've had one for 6 months for connecting my laptop & ps3 (my cd player) to a tube amp and have been very happy with it. More inputs than anything decent in that price range: USB, coax & Optical.  Very simple - it has 2 switches and no display. I like to think the money went into the sound instead of bells & whistles. Has great reviews for the price range. Sounds great. It even improved the sound from my laptop with my ELAC amp, which is supposed to have a very good internal DAC, so I just leave the inputs in the D30 and it makes switching between amps very easy.

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