WANTED: Inexpensive DAC with Volume Control

[sazeracrye]

Actually, having 5 dacs at the moment I'm sure I can survive in 4 so if you want it, it's yours.

Hi Lawrence,

Very generous offer mate, very much appreciated! If your suggestion of running the Minimax without the valve installed does not work I will take you up on it, I should know later today after running music through the DAC for an hour or two.

Cheers,
Steve

[Lawrence001]

Oops hope that didn't come across as I'm giving it away, I meant I can sell it now rather than wait to try it with my new speakers (as one of the other 4 dacs should do the job) as per my previous post!

[Lawrence001]

[Apologies I have found a home for this in my second system and have had to withdraw the lending offer]

Sent from my NEM-L51 using Tapatalk

[Sherwood]

Sabaidee All, It's been awhile since I have been on AOS, I hope everyone is having a good sound year thus far. All is well with Meryl and I here in Laos except for my EE Minimax DAC has starting sputtering on all inputs and I fear it is not long for this world and getting it repaired here is well impossible.

With that said, I am looking for a DAC that has at least 2 digital inputs, can handle up to 24/192 on coax or USB, and has a volume control preferably as I am running Adam powered monitors. I live in Luang Prabang, Laos so will need the item shipped at my expense of course and will pay for the DAC itself by Bank transfer from my UK account. The shipping is as simple as standard UK next day delivery with the exception of a customs declaration form that takes 5 minutes to fill out.

My max budget is £200, what do you have for a poor charity worker?! :geek: Yes, I am shameless...

Cheers, Steve

Steve,

understand your situation. I also work in international development and worked in neighbouring Vietnam in Cao Bang Province up in the north for a couple of years. However, I think that you may be overestimating the difficulty of getting a good replacement locally, not least because so much hifi is manufactured in the region. Whilst it was difficult to buy anything up in Cao Bang there is a proliferation of upmarket hifi stores in Hanoi. I am guessing that there are at least a few stores selling audio in Vientiane. Maybe you can get somebody travelling to Vientiane or Hanoi to pick up something for you. Alternatively, it might be worth getting a cheap flight to Hanoi and combining some weekend r&r with some shopping. As to equipment, have you looked at something like the tiny Dragonfly USB DACs which have a volume control and are very easy/cheap to ship. Another thought is a second hand Apple Airport Express. Not widely known that these can be configured to play music with powered speakers. They sound very good too.

Good luck in your search.

[sazeracrye]

Steve,

understand your situation. I also work in international development and worked in neighbouring Vietnam in Cao Bang Province up in the north for a couple of years. However, I think that you may be overestimating the difficulty of getting a good replacement locally, not least because so much hifi is manufactured in the region. Whilst it was difficult to buy anything up in Cao Bang there is a proliferation of upmarket hifi stores in Hanoi. I am guessing that there are at least a few stores selling audio in Vientiane. Maybe you can get somebody travelling to Vientiane or Hanoi to pick up something for you. Alternatively, it might be worth getting a cheap flight to Hanoi and combining some weekend r&r with some shopping. As to equipment, have you looked at something like the tiny Dragonfly USB DACs which have a volume control and are very easy/cheap to ship. Another thought is a second hand Apple Airport Express. Not widely known that these can be configured to play music with powered speakers. They sound very good too.

Good luck in your search.

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your kind note and the input, much appreciated. We don't travel outside of Laos much except for traveling back to the UK or US to visit friends and family. We were in the UK back in January for the birth of our 4th Grandchild, the Minimax was working perfectly when we left and starting sputtering upon our return, naturally. Our next bit of travel won't be until June to Thailand when we do our annual visa leave/return.

With that said I have decided to go with a new Caiman SEG as suggested by several AOS members and some of the folks over on the WAM. Stan offered me a great price with shipping which made it a no brainer. Also the Caiman can run off of an external 12v battery which is ideal for me since the voltage swings in my village are diabolical. I am sure this is what killed the Minamax.

Thanks again and all the best,
Steve

[sazeracrye]

Physically removing the 12AU7 from the Minimax made no difference whatsoever so the DAC will have to go into retirement. Thanks for the advice though Lawrence it was worth a go.

With that said I have decided to go with a new Caiman SEG, Stan offered me a great price with shipping which made it a no brainer. What a great guy to deal with, kudos to Mssr. Beresford!

Thanks again for all of the help and advice but I am now sorted.

Cheers,

Steve

[Sherwood]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your kind note and the input, much appreciated. We don't travel outside of Laos much except for traveling back to the UK or US to visit friends and family. We were in the UK back in January for the birth of our 4th Grandchild, the Minimax was working perfectly when we left and starting sputtering upon our return, naturally. Our next bit of travel won't be until June to Thailand when we do our annual visa leave/return.

With that said I have decided to go with a new Caiman SEG as suggested by several AOS members and some of the folks over on the WAM. Stan offered me a great price with shipping which made it a no brainer. Also the Caiman can run off of an external 12v battery which is ideal for me since the voltage swings in my village are diabolical. I am sure this is what killed the Minamax.

Thanks again and all the best,
Steve

Steve

You are reminding me of the challenges of good hifi in difficult circumstances. In other long term postings I would regularly have computing and other equipment fried by erratic power supplies. Bangladesh was the worst. Despite having extensive surge protection my PC was once completely fried when the sub-station adjacent to our office was hit by lightning during the monsoon season. Very scary as I was in the office at the time and call still recall the physical power of the strike, the blue flash and the smell afterwards!

In my time in Vietnam (just a short distance from the Chinese border) the quality and reliability of the mains power was awful. Full day power (or longer) outages were common, most often at the weekend. Although I had a small generator at the office, I could not face the noise and smell of one at home. My solution was to get a large SLA 12v battery and trickle charger. These are widely available in Vietnam and Laos I would guess. I used mine (bought from a motorcycle store) to power a tiny Nuforce digital amplifier which also ran off 12v. It had sufficient capacity to see me through any power cut, in part, no doubt to my highly efficient single driver (95db) speakers. The Nuforce amp had a built in DAC so could take digital inputs as well as analogue.

It sounds as if the postal/customs arrangements in Laos are functional. I would never rely on getting anything valuable sent to me on most of my earlier postings (Namibia being a notable exception).

I can endorse the Caiman SEG. I was on the waiting list for the first batch having enquired earlier about whether Beresford had a top quality DAC with volume control. I have tried it with a 12v battery and it sounds a little better than with the supplied adaptor. It draws very little current so would run for ages from a SLA battery.

Hope you get yours soon. For me, music was an essential tool to wind down after a difficult day in the field!

Geoff