New dac up to £350 or so?

[roob]

Chris, I am using a Chevron Audio Paradox Deluxe Dac, the XMOS interface was a later addition at my request, the dac cost a lot more than £350 though.
I think Gromit has already tried a usb/coax convertor with a Caiman.

[webby]

The convenience of Stan's DACs are hard beat: heaphone amp, fixed and variable out etc ... I wonder what features Stan caould produce in a £350 priced product. Better power supply/regulation and asynch USB would be on a lot of people's wish list.

I don't think stan's going to implement asynchronous USB in his DAC's, he's clearly against it.

[bobbasrah]

I don't think stan's going to implement asynchronous USB in his DAC's, he's clearly against it.

So far.......

[roob]

I don't think stan's going to implement asynchronous USB in his DAC's, he's clearly against it.

Not having it will reduce any dacs appeal to potential customers.

[StanleyB]

The convenience of Stan's DACs are hard beat: heaphone amp, fixed and variable out etc ... I wonder what features Stan caould produce in a £350 priced product. Better power supply/regulation and asynch USB would be on a lot of people's wish list.

If you ignore the variable output and USB, the Bushmaster will be a good benchmark of where I am heading in terms of the accuracy in reproducing the converted digital data into an analogue one. Unfortunately I cannot quite get myself to thread the more expensive routes to get there. I still prefer to seek out the most cost effective method. So yes, I would use a readily available hammer to crack a nut, instead of popping out to the shop and invest in a new nutcracker. The ultimate aim is that the nut should be exposed with little or no damage, irrespective of the method used to get to it.
That is no different from trying to get the most out of an audio track. Especially so when many of us have to keep one eye on our finances, and one ear on the wife's inquisitive tongue. So a £350 price tag is not my immediate priority right now. What is of importance to me though is that
1. I don't leave many or any of the individual digital bits present in the audio track unaccounted for in the final audio reproduction.
2. I don't place any decoded bit in the wrong location within the 3D soundstage.
3. I don't tamper with the frequency response and phase of the audio signal.
How much better I have become in those objectives I shall have to leave to my peers to judge when the Bushmaster is finally released.

As for async: I still maintain that the perceived advantages are just snake oil. All that talk about async removing jitter and increasing clock accuracy would only work, if it did, in an I2S stage. But the majority of DACs have a receiver IC like the CS8416 or WM8804. Their job is to do exactly the same as what async is supposed to do for jitter. As a matter of fact, these receiver chips are even classified in terms of their jitter performance. But the great jitter busting miracle that goes by the name of async USB cannot quote its own jitter performance. Have a think about that one .

[bobbasrah]

Usb (halide, hiface, etc), Optical, Coaxial, etc., all appear to have positive and negative camps, but most progress does appear in the I2S and USB camps. The design and implementation of DAC's is also getting more refined, and prices are generally falling other than at the the esoteric end of the market.
Should be an interesting year if the chinese get their QC up to snuff....

[Welder]

I've got an XMOS board hanging off the front of my Buffalo 11.

(The Buffalo; yet another of those buys on rave reviews, only to find the reviewers were deaf, upgrades)

The above may be a little unfair because there are a number Dac configurations, but considering the cost when casing, power supplies and connections are taken into account, I'm not convinced the performance warrants the expense and time. Replacing the USB receiver with the XMOS and hooking up my linear regulated USB power supply has improved things, but I'm still left with an indifferent output stage.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that its the often repeated re-sampling in file audio that is the fly in the ointment and jitter, which would seem to require esoteric and expensive cables and data transfer methods to overcome, is adequately dealt with by most competently built Dacs.

For re-sampling asynchronous Dacs in this price range I still think the HRT 11+ takes some beating.

In the £500 range I would probably go for the Metrum NOS Dac purely on the fact that it doesn't oversample and uses a relatively unknown chip in audiophile circles or for the traditionalists, perhaps the Rega.
To my ears the Dacs I've heard, even some pretty expensive ones, while sounding slightly different to each other don't sound noticeably better, but then I think that about a lot of HI FI.

[Gromit]

Thanks for all the input and ideas chaps - lots of stuff I've never even heard of (hardly susprising with me being a digital know-nothing!) but that's good.

I presently have my eye on a nearly-new DM+ but if that falls through I'll be out doing more research - I also see M2Tech have a new affordable DAC out now which looks promising. Slightly limited on its inputs but obviously if it sounds really good....

[Welder]

Thanks for all the input and ideas chaps - lots of stuff I've never even heard of (hardly susprising with me being a digital know-nothing!) but that's good.

I presently have my eye on a nearly-new DM+ but if that falls through I'll be out doing more research - I also see M2Tech have a new affordable DAC out now which looks promising. Slightly limited on its inputs but obviously if it sounds really good....

I'll prolly get disproving looks from the more sensitive contributors and comprehensively blanked, but I cant help wondering if getting know a a bit about digital audio before you part with your cash might be prudent.

The "ask for a few recommendations on a forum" strategy seems a bit like marrying a women who is a total stranger because your mate said she was a good shag.

[roob]

That little M2tech dac really needs to be coupled with the EVO interface though then you are into £600+ territory, John Kenny's dac would be cheaper
http://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home/hiface-dac
Have you seen the DM+ for sale on pfm? the guy who is selling is a good guy, I have purchased off him in the past.