grendel23 Posted October 8, 2021 Share Posted October 8, 2021 I have a Topping DX7s. Excellent unit, top notch for the money. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pondoro Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 My PC story - I had trouble with the built in Soundcard in a 2006 era PC (in 2020, it was my backup basement PC), everything else worked but newer software locked up if it tried to access the soundcard. So I needed to buy a soundcard, I bought a $40 ASUS. Not for the sound quality, mind you, just to avoid lock-ups. Half my audio internet friends told me "all DACs sound the same" and half told me, "If you do not spend $200 (or $500) you'll never hear an improvement. Thus I expected to hear nothing. Wrong! The $40 sound card was noticeably better sonically than the built in maybe $2 DAC chip. This caused me to buy a $99 Schiit Modi external DAC for my TV room PC. We were watching a lot of online concerts in that room. The Modi also made a noticeable improvement. I never A/B'ed the Modi versus the ASUS sound card because the PC's are in different rooms on different floors with different speakers. I never did any blind testing. I've worked in Quality in industry and done a lot of statistics. I respect math and I understand bias, but I refuse to do blind testing of a $40 or even a $100 DAC. With the $40 sound card my bias was against hearing any difference, but I heard it. I've never compared a $100 DAC against $200, $500, $Multi-thousand DACs, I am curious but not with my money. I am am a believer that any aftermarket DAC could beat whatever DAC is built into a mass production lower cost PC. I'm not claiming they all will, but I am sure some, probably most, do beat the OEM on-mother-board chip. Remember - the guy who is making a million PC's per year can save a million dollars for every dollar removed from the DAC chip cost! That free-to-you sound chip is probably a $2 or $3 item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEH Synergy Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 On 10/8/2021 at 9:51 AM, grendel23 said: I have a Topping DX7s. Excellent unit, top notch for the money. I had one of those before I bought the DX7 PRO and can comment that both of them are killer units for the money. You would have to spend quite a bit more even used to get a large step up in performance IMO. Gustard makes some great units as well, but from memory, they cost a little more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted October 11, 2021 Share Posted October 11, 2021 Have to echo everyone else's sentiments Dave. Digital out to a dedicated DAC is the way to go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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