WTD> DAC for streaming/phone/laptop etc

[kirstysdad]

Everyone seems to have one.
I have an adaptor into my iPhone and it sounds mediocre at best.
Could I do better?
I don't need it to be portable, but want to use it with my system and headphones, but not necessarily portable.
Want to find out without spending £200 on an iFi Zen thingy.

[Lawrence001]

You can get decent second hand ones cheap if you keep an eye out although I don't know how iPhone/usb links work as I'm all android.

I always recommend Audio Gd as a nice natural sounding brand there's no as many as Topping but I think they sound better, although apparently they measure much worse.

[mikeyb]

Sorry, deleted as I thought you were looking for a headphone adapter, didn't see that you were connecting to your system

[MisterMoseley]

I have a Schiit Modius for sale at the moment. It’s on a couple of other forums and a certain auction site.
I’d be happy to raise a sale ad here if it’s of any interest.
I’d say it’s one step up the ladder from entry level.
What I can’t work out is whether you’re looking for a DAC with a headphone connection. Mine doesn’t have this.

[Westendboy]

Everyone seems to have one.
I have an adaptor into my iPhone and it sounds mediocre at best.
Could I do better?
I don't need it to be portable, but want to use it with my system and headphones, but not necessarily portable.
Want to find out without spending £200 on an iFi Zen thingy.

I have a Bluesound n100 for sale complete with supplied cables unopened, boxed with manual but your preamp would need a headphone input. Contact me if you are interested.

[Macca]

You can get decent second hand ones cheap if you keep an eye out although I don't know how iPhone/usb links work as I'm all android.

I always recommend Audio Gd as a nice natural sounding brand there's no as many as Topping but I think they sound better, although apparently they measure much worse.

Audio GD DACs are poorly engineered, simple as that. There is no possible way they could sound 'better' than a Topping although they might just be adequate enough to sound identical.

They lie about their specs and they are stupidly expensive for what you're getting. They also reckon their DACs need 1000 hours of 'burn in'. Presumably just to get you past the return period. Another red flag.


Personally I would never recommend their products to anyone.

[Pigmy Pony]

What about something like this Sandy? Has headphone socket too. I have one, but I can't tell you what it's like as I lost the bloody power supply plug :doh:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165917979129?hash=item26a17b71f9:g:3qoAAOSwlYNj2so-&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoLygpW%2FavDxmRRLLzjzV69K7o7f YdGiZpBPOWTgKmyzhfIhNlmzSD19uFfyIqlDZdw1f%2FO6hZkr V4F8BN8e99W7XiIRpyeCeBAS52GpU8Fnclp9cae3folwKJubmR lbCEUcsU2qwfR6o1cRy7zcrGlki1jbUpnHwh%2FaOSbhK5tLku smtrPXboK4wG755TnSVS995bYeHsIa2PY2WTeC6E2U%3D%7Ctk p%3ABk9SR4anpZDEYQ

[Lawrence001]

What about something like this Sandy? Has headphone socket too. I have one, but I can't tell you what it's like as I lost the bloody power supply plug :doh:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165917979129?hash=item26a17b71f9:g:3qoAAOSwlYNj2so-&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoLygpW%2FavDxmRRLLzjzV69K7o7f YdGiZpBPOWTgKmyzhfIhNlmzSD19uFfyIqlDZdw1f%2FO6hZkr V4F8BN8e99W7XiIRpyeCeBAS52GpU8Fnclp9cae3folwKJubmR lbCEUcsU2qwfR6o1cRy7zcrGlki1jbUpnHwh%2FaOSbhK5tLku smtrPXboK4wG755TnSVS995bYeHsIa2PY2WTeC6E2U%3D%7Ctk p%3ABk9SR4anpZDEYQHasn't got a USB though?

[Lawrence001]

Audio GD DACs are poorly engineered, simple as that. There is no possible way they could sound 'better' than a Topping although they might just be adequate enough to sound identical.

They lie about their specs and they are stupidly expensive for what you're getting. They also reckon their DACs need 1000 hours of 'burn in'. Presumably just to get you past the return period. Another red flag.


Personally I would never recommend their products to anyone.We'll have to agree to disagree on that I think! I'm listening to mine right now and thoroughly enjoying it. There have been times when I've tried something else and thought that's got much higher resolution or something, but after a few days I notice the fatigue and put the Audio Gd back in and it's quite a relief.

[Macca]

We'll have to agree to disagree on that I think! I'm listening to mine right now and thoroughly enjoying it. There have been times when I've tried something else and thought that's got much higher resolution or something, but after a few days I notice the fatigue and put the Audio Gd back in and it's quite a relief.

My reservations about Audio GD as a brand don't really have anything to do with the sound quality.

I don't know what it would be about your Audio GD that makes it less fatiguing than some other DACs for you but that's interesting that it does. Which model is it?

[Sherwood]

30794


www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-pro-max

This may be what you are looking for. Bought this in December for about £90 including shipping.

Cannot rate this highly enough. I use the balanced 4.4mm output with my HifiMan headphones.

More than enough output from my phone. Great sound quality. Only downside: it runs a little warm.

[Lawrence001]

My reservations about Audio GD as a brand don't really have anything to do with the sound quality.

I don't know what it would be about your Audio GD that makes it less fatiguing than some other DACs for you but that's interesting that it does. Which model is it?

At the moment I'm using an NFB 3.1, I've got two of those, a later NFB 10 and an earlier Fun. They all have the WM8741 chip in common. I couldn't get on with his Sabre and R2R DACs but to be fair the Sabre one was quite early and the R2R the cheapest one.

[kirstysdad]

Thanks y'all, will try to assimilate the info.

[kirstysdad]

What about something like this Sandy? Has headphone socket too. I have one, but I can't tell you what it's like as I lost the bloody power supply plug :doh:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165917979129?hash=item26a17b71f9:g:3qoAAOSwlYNj2so-&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoLygpW%2FavDxmRRLLzjzV69K7o7f YdGiZpBPOWTgKmyzhfIhNlmzSD19uFfyIqlDZdw1f%2FO6hZkr V4F8BN8e99W7XiIRpyeCeBAS52GpU8Fnclp9cae3folwKJubmR lbCEUcsU2qwfR6o1cRy7zcrGlki1jbUpnHwh%2FaOSbhK5tLku smtrPXboK4wG755TnSVS995bYeHsIa2PY2WTeC6E2U%3D%7Ctk p%3ABk9SR4anpZDEYQ

No, sadly. I have one of these...

[struth]

i used one of these smsl m6 dac/ head amps...

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1IYooLpXXXXXxXpXXq6xXFXXXT/SMSL-M6-32Bit-384KHz-USB-asynchronous-AUDIO-DAC-headphone-amplifier-USB-OPTIC-Coaxial-input.jpg_Q90.jpg_.webp

still got it somewhere. was a good amp and dac at time and i used it for years.

[spm]

I've a couple of DACs that I've not used for at least 5 years when I moved house so probably should look to move them on. A Topping TP30 Mk 2 and a portable Cambridge DACmagic XS.

The Topping I used mainly as an amp with small speakers to improve sound from tv but I also had a small pc connected from USB for streaming. The Cambridge I just used with a pc and headphones, a quick google indicates that some people have got it to work with a phone, and some that have struggled and Cambridge say it wasn't designed for phones.

The Topping uses a printer type USB connector and the Cambridge micro usb.

Pricewise £45 for the Topping and £25 for the Cambridge.

Let me know if you are interested.

[kirstysdad]

30794


www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-pro-max

This may be what you are looking for. Bought this in December for about £90 including shipping.

Cannot rate this highly enough. I use the balanced 4.4mm output with my HifiMan headphones.

More than enough output from my phone. Great sound quality. Only downside: it runs a little warm.

I am looking into this as not too expensive to take a punt... but Grant's SMSL is looking tempting.

[kirstysdad]

30794


www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-pro-max

This may be what you are looking for. Bought this in December for about £90 including shipping.

Cannot rate this highly enough. I use the balanced 4.4mm output with my HifiMan headphones.

More than enough output from my phone. Great sound quality. Only downside: it runs a little warm.

This looks tempting. was it £90 including import tax etc from their own shop site?

[struth]

30794


www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-pro-max

This may be what you are looking for. Bought this in December for about £90 including shipping.

Cannot rate this highly enough. I use the balanced 4.4mm output with my HifiMan headphones.

More than enough output from my phone. Great sound quality. Only downside: it runs a little warm.

looks great... might think about one too...

[Sherwood]

Bought it from this site

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zuperdac-pro-max/x/30938561#/



This looks tempting. was it £90 including import tax etc from their own shop site?

[kirstysdad]

Bought it from this site

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zuperdac-pro-max/x/30938561#/

Closed sadly...

[struth]

unfortunately i currently cant find my m6... its in the spare room but i cant get in spare room doh

[Wakefield Turntables]

I've got a Caiman SEG up for sale if your interested, I can do you a good deal, I'm trying to decrease the box count.

[kirstysdad]

I've got a Caiman SEG up for sale if your interested, I can do you a good deal, I'm trying to decrease the box count.

Tempting...

[kirstysdad]

unfortunately i currently cant find my m6... its in the spare room but i cant get in spare room doh

Unless Grant gets access to his spare room... I am still looking for a DAC, probably a Topping E30... :doh:

[twotone]

Unless Grant gets access to his spare room... I am still looking for a DAC, probably a Topping E30... :doh:

Guy on PFM selling one, black £100 or was.

[alcarmichael]

Unless Grant gets access to his spare room... I am still looking for a DAC, probably a Topping E30... :doh:

PM sent ��

[kirstysdad]

PM sent ��

Thanks Alex, sorry for the mix up- my fault.

Giving up for now. Thanks to all who replied.

[alcarmichael]

If you want a DAC with a headphone output I highly recommend the Chord Mojo.

[alcarmichael]

Tried to PM you but your inbox is full.

I’ve never heard one but these are meant to be pretty good. And it’s cheap!

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/meridian-explorer-2-dac-headphone-amp.277888/

[mr sneff]

I have a Topping E30 which is surplus to requirements if you're interested.......
Whereabouts in Powys are you?

[kirstysdad]

Tried to PM you but your inbox is full.

I’ve never heard one but these are meant to be pretty good. And it’s cheap!

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/meridian-explorer-2-dac-headphone-amp.277888/

:doh:

[kirstysdad]

I have a Topping E30 which is surplus to requirements if you're interested.......
Whereabouts in Powys are you?

Big Shire/Sir

Montgomery...