DAC Time! Which one?

[hilldweller]

Hi all, hope all is well with everyone.
I am in the market for a DAC unit but do not know much about them. I listen to music off of the computer at times on spotify but the music quality sucks when played through analog equipment. If anyone out there has a solution or recommendation for a DAC unit, I am all ears. Thanks in advance.

[WA4SWJ]

Well, as with everything it depends on how much money you want to spend. I have a Benckmark DAC1 PRE that is really quite wonderful but it was about $1800 when I bought it. When I first started using it I could hear an immediate, drastic improvement in the high frequency part of the music I listen to. I am quite happy with it. They have newer models now that have gotten great reviews. On the other end a really nice inexpensive DAC is the Dragonfly DAC at around $150. I also have one of those and it works great as well. My ears are not good enough to tell a whole lot of difference between the two except again in the upper range of frequencies.

I would start small and move up over time if I was doing it again.

[hilldweller]

Well, as with everything it depends on how much money you want to spend. I have a Benckmark DAC1 PRE that is really quite wonderful but it was about $1800 when I bought it. When I first started using it I could hear an immediate, drastic improvement in the high frequency part of the music I listen to. I am quite happy with it. They have newer models now that have gotten great reviews. On the other end a really nice inexpensive DAC is the Dragonfly DAC at around $150. I also have one of those and it works great as well. My ears are not good enough to tell a whole lot of difference between the two except again in the upper range of frequencies.

I would start small and move up over time if I was doing it again.

Thanks Ed, I appreciate your help. I will probably go with the dragonfly based on the little research I did. Looks like a good bang for the buck if your just using for computer.

[WA4SWJ]

Yes, I agree completely and it can handle a pretty wide range of bit rates. Can't go wrong with it I think.

[Geek]

Edirol makes some great bang-for-the-buck DAC's

[Shannon Parks]

I got one of these for $12 shipped:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321432206367?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT



It uses the Burr Browm PCM2704 and installed soooo easily with my Win7 64bit machine. I'm going to strip the anodized blue case with a Red Devil Lye bath and then do an engine turned finish with my drill press (hopefully get rid of the cheap feel and look). I'll post pix when I'm done. Should fit real nice on top of my Budgie SE (or any amp).

Shannon

[Geek]

I'm in!

Hell, the chip alone costs me that up here

(unless he's done something funky, what's not mentioned is the 270x series mounts on Linux like any external soundcard)

[hilldweller]

Too cheesy for me. Looks like it came from Harbor Freight Tools.

[Geek]

Don't judge a book by it's cover! Looks and sonics can be two very different things

[hilldweller]

Don't judge a book by it's cover! Looks and sonics can be two very different things

That may be true but I bet this one performs much better, 24 bit/96 kHz
http://www.amazon.com/AUDIOQUEST-DRAGON ... gonfly+dac

[Geek]

That is cute!

[pmarcin]

I bougt a Maverick D1+. It wa so deightful and functional, I bought, I bought a D2+. I couldn't be jappier.

[hilldweller]

I went with this one and I am happy I did. I am powering it with a 12 volt, 10ah battery set up. It is built with high quality parts, Nichicon fine gold series audio grade capacitors.
https://www.parts-express.com/topping-d ... c--310-332

[Fishstix]

Hey Folks,

I was in the same place a couple months back, and ended up getting on board with the RuneAudio project. http://www.runeaudio.com/ It's free and open source, and I am both happy and impressed with it.

It's a stripped down Linux build that is made for the Hi-Fi crowd. It lives on a Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone Black. You pick up the parts yourself, download the OS, put it together, and you have a neat little hardwired media center that you can access and control with any tablet or smartphone with a browser. The native analog output on a RaspbyPi is pretty terrible, but there are a few plug and play DACs with straight-to-analog output that you can pick up cheaply (~40 dollar range) and sound just fantastic. I have the HiFiberry, but IQaudIO and Wolfson also have highly regarded models as well.

I can't say I have golden ears, but I have a pretty decent turntable and a nice RIAA section on my pre-amp... the sound coming out of my RPi and HiFiberry is in the same ballpark. For serious. It's even turning heads amongst my non-audiophile friends. For all of you who already have nice DACs, and just want to try the media server end of things, you can also pick up digi-boards that will output your digital signal (via toslink or usb) to your stand-alone DAC. At 4 watts, I like it better than running my (loud) computer as a media center.

It's still in the beta build (0.3 beta as of this writing) so there are a few quirks, depending on how crazy you want to get with your system. But even at this point, my simple rig is super stable. I can run 24/192 files through it easily. It's already so polished, it looks like a proper final release.

All told, I probably have ~100 bucks into this RuneAudio media center/DAC. (Dev board/DAC/power supply/SD card/thumb drive) A little more when you consider the diy chassis. And it was a *really* fun project. Anyways, thanks for reading. Pics or it didn't happen, right?

-Fishstix

DSC_1686b.JPG (235.43 KiB) Viewed 5877 times

Ugh, white wire on a black chassis. It was off the scrap pile but.... <shudder.> Looks sometimes matter.

[20to20]

Hey Folks,

I can run 24/192 files through it easily.

Stix,

Are your 24/192 files in .wav? How are you storing them, and what "player" reads them into your DAC?

20