What's Your Dac?

[struth]

DAC de jour is a Benchmark DAC1 HDR - it's a very good remote controlled preamp as well.

That one is on my list too Jerry. Nice looking bit of kit

[Haselsh1]

Audiolab M-DAC. How do I rate it..? Difficult as I only have two others to compare it to however it is better than either of those.

[Pharos]

Yes Grant, I've got my eyes on that as well, or maybe the '2'.

[Discopants]

No external DAC, my system is entirely digital with a Lyngdorf TDAI 3400. Ive got a Chord mojo for headphones that i use at work.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Landloper]

New toy for the bedside listening setup: a Roksan K3 DAC, no half-width affair. The best DAC I've used so far. Previous boxes included an Arcam rDAC, an Audiolab M-DAC, a Beresford Caiman II, a Beresford SEG, and an SPS DAC 3. It has a couple of useful extras such as two sets of RCA outs allowing me to run two HPAs and an internal K-Link receiver and USB transmitter for sending CD quality from a computer to the DAC. Well-built and sounds great - quite a step up from the M-DAC. Bought at a whopping discount, £900 off from Audiovisual online [including next day delivery].


K3:1.jpg

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K3:4.jpg

*I'll be keeping the Caiman SEG and SPS DAC 3.

[Ianmac]

Topping D50.
I have had to downsize my 2nd system due to a room change. Having promised my son my N cores and Benchmark DAC1 HDR, I set out looking for alternatives. Im a Benchmark Fan of some years using the DAC1 HDR and DAC2 so looked at the S/H market for benchmark gear but was a bit taken aback by the prices being asked for 10 year old design and electronic hardwear. I found a link on the forum to a site that provided technical measurements of various DACs. I was attracted to the Topping performance figures particularly the D50 and DX7s. They lay midway between the Benchmark HDR and the DAC2. The D50 is a bare dac with no frills, needs a 5v PSU and provides unbalanced outputs. The DX7s is similar to the bechmark DAC1's with balanced and unbalanced output and internal PSU. The DAC section electronics spec for both is almost identical. It will be the same circuitry. The D50 is £179 ex amazon and the D7S about twice that price.
I decided to jump in and bought a D50. It arrived a few days ago and has been running 24/7 Im using a separate Linear 5v supply I built (equivalent on Ebay circa £45) but it comes with a USB power connector so could be used from a powered laptop or clean PC.
Well Ive been gobsmacked with its performance, into my NCores/ATCscm 40's its every bit as good in the SQ arena as my as my Benchmark HDR. I still have to do an evaluation against my DAC2.
Im now a convert- No need to pay megabucks for a good DAC !
Im redesigning my system for the smaller room around a D50 with a passive unbalanced switch to give me Vinyl/Dac into a new pair of NCores.

[julesd68]

Very interesting review Ian. I'm still liking my Topping D30 but would be happy to try another DAC of theirs. The D70 should be released any moment now but will be around 600 quid. I'd love to know how much of an improvement the D50 would be over the D30 as the price is very attractive of course!

[Ianmac]

Not a review just an indicator
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...rters-dacs.10/
Page 1 gives you their interpretation of the D30 and new D50.
From looking at the Topping specs the big difference is in the architecture of the two. The D50 uses two DAC chips (ES9038Q2M) one for each L & R channel so I would expect a lower noise figure and better channel separation so slightly more detail and improved soundstage.
The published noise for the E30 is -113 to -115 db while the D50 is -122 db so the ( unwanted) noise is at around half the level of that coming out of the D30.

It is important to remember that the Hi Fi system following the DAC must be capable of revealing the improvement.

My donation of my NCores and Benchmark to my son has now backfired. In my new room I initially set up using an old Cyrus Smartpower amp I had. It just didnt cut it with the D50.
Ive now ordered two Hypex Ncore amp boards and power supplies, plus the aluminium to make cases for them, so Im now almost back to square one but with the Topping instead of the Benchmark.
Good hunting re the potential change.

[julesd68]

Thanks Ian, some more useful insights there!

[Mand]

Schiit Gungnir multibit replaced a Chord 2qute.
Nice organic sound, don’t feel inclined to try anything else at the moment.