Bargain DAC Suggestions?

[Nightlord]

Where do you hide it, behind the amps?
Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly is to the bone.

That would work. Myself I don't have eyes open when listening to music, so looks isn't a parameter.

 

[quincy]

Interested in the ol dac specified earlier in the thread (https://www.jdslabs.com/products/176/ol-dac/); would like to how it stacks up since this appears to be an improvement over the older hyped up odac mentioned in many audio forums. The modi 2 was also highly recommended so surprised by the test results.

Amir - Appreciate the work you have done so far on the budget dac comparisons; the behringer is now high on my next purchase list.

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the kind words Quincy. I will go ahead and purchase the ol-dac.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I had forgotten this one. I don't know how far above $100 you wish to go. This one usually is $199. This company has an excellent rep unlike Behringer. . The specs are good on it as well. A bit less full featured than the Behringer, but another pro interface that has one mic input and will do stereo as a playback or headphone device via USB. Audient ID4

https://www.amazon.com/Audient-iD4-USB-Audio-Interface/dp/B0107YJU8Q

https://audient.com/products/audio-interfaces/id4/tech-specs/

This one will likely outperform the Behringer though of course it costs 2.5x as much.

You will also need either TRS to XLR adapters or TRS to RCA adapters as the stereo outputs are balanced TRS only.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I just looked at your OP, and you mentioned $300 and under. Moving up to the Audient ID14 might make good sense. It has a truly sterling rep in the pro audio community. It uses Burr Brown converters, has excellent specs and the optical input will accept both ADAT and SPDIF inputs. You'll still need those adapters for the output however. It just sneeks under at $289.

Last year on the Gearslutz forum when asked for nominees of the best under $300 interface this one received nearly 3 times the nominations as all others put together. It is the defacto suggestion there for audio interfaces under $300.

https://www.amazon.com/Audient-iD14...8&qid=1497070812&sr=8-1&keywords=audient+id14

https://audient.com/products/audio-interfaces/id14/tech-specs/

 

[Sal1950]

I just looked at your OP, and you mentioned $300 and under. Moving up to the Audient ID14 might make good sense.

The further we move into the pro category though, how many of those accolades are based on the various pro feature sets and versatility. Things that have no spin for the home audio users.
Just saying, thinking if he's going to spend more and more money, should it be looking into the home Hi Fi market, there's a lot of stuff out there.
Just getting a bit confused here.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The further we move into the pro category though, how many of those accolades are based on the various pro feature sets and versatility. Things that have no spin for the home audio users.
Just saying, thinking if he's going to spend more and more money, should it be looking into the home Hi Fi market, there's a lot of stuff out there.
Just getting a bit confused here.

You have a point. At this price ($300) we still don't have too many other features involved. This unit is considered to have excellent microphone preamps. Not a concern for audio listeners. It also has excellent quality ADCs which are of some use for audio listeners. For either of those to make sense it has the requisite excellent DAC and analog output electronics. The only added feature not on the U-phoria already tested is the ADAT/Toslink jacks which listeners can use. Not many wasted features there. For such a device it is minimal feature wise.

Devices like this now use codec chips. Those are chips that have both ADC and DAC on one chip. Most codec chips also have built in asynch USB. You may not be able to get any better performance digitally than these provide. So you wouldn't do any better to have a DAC only device at these lower prices. You would end up having a DAC with a codec chip half of which is turned off. What you get from these companies is their expertise in dealing with high gain, low noise, wide bandwidth, high headroom analog circuits. So you are getting that expertise for the very best performance codec chips can provide at minimal cost. These two together if they have achieved full audible transparency are simply not going to be beat except for features. The Audient ID14 specs DAC unweighted dynamic range of 114 db (117 db A-wtd). You have to really spend to beat that by much.

 

[amirm]

I guess my question would what are the low cost DACs that are getting a buzz among audiophiles but does not have measurements. Like to provide data for products that have popularity as that does more good than unknown products.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The flip side is measuring worthy products to create a buzz. I can only think of the Schiit and Meridian Explorer having a buzz at lower prices. The Emotiva Big Ego should fit the bill, but I haven't seen it ever mentioned by anyone.

 

[Thomas savage]

I think we should be carful, openly admitting to measuring a product to increase its popularity is not a path to go down..

We measure, the numbers speak for themselves. No positive or negative discrimination.

By all means measure popular products , else no one will tune in.. no bias though.. just the numbers .

 

[Blumlein 88]

I think we should be carful, openly admitting to measuring a product to increase its popularity is not a path to go down..

We measure, the numbers speak for themselves. No positive or negative discrimination.

By all means measure popular products , else no one will tune in.. no bias though.. just the numbers .

I wasn't suggesting deciding what to measure to increase popularity in the sense I have seen other forums do this to get revenue from ad money. Only in the sense one audio buddy tells another, "hey man, I have run across this great new thing. It doesn't cost much, and sounds much better than the regular gear everyone uses." For all I know the Audient might measure about the same as the Behringer in which case it would be a kudo for Behringer in the end.

If it turns out you get sound performance from an odd $300 product not even targeting home audiophiles which is up with $1000 or $2000 audiophile products that is news worth trumpeting. As long as measurements are honest ( can we trust you Amir, we already know about you from those other sites......) the numbers are the numbers.

Obviously there aren't lots of well regarded sub $500 DACs, and I took it that Amir wanted to highlight any that were available which deserved being known. I wish established review sites would do more testing at least like JA does at Stereophile while targeting the inexpensive gear and measuring it.

 

[Sal1950]

I wonder how much a barrier pro gear faces in the audiophile market in general? I get the feeling a large portion look down their noses at pro gear. You know, the speakers are all PA squawkers, the amps unsophisticated crudely designed hunks where only power is valued and so on. I remember a time when Crown had some respected audiophile creds, what happened there. I owned a IC 150A for a number of years back in the 70-80s, great piece, I only replaced it with a Steve McCormack Line Drive after a complete electronics overhaul paying close attention to the surrounding gears impedance's, drive voltage, etc; to optimize it for passive preamp use. The resulting system put it very close to SOTA performance at a comparatively very low cost. But I ramble OT here, LOL
Bottom line, can a pro audio component ever gain respect in the pages of WBF or alike? LOL

 

[Blumlein 88]

I wonder how much a barrier pro gear faces in the audiophile market in general? I get the feeling a large portion look down their noses at pro gear. You know, the speakers are all PA squawkers, the amps unsophisticated crudely designed hunks where only power is valued and so on. I remember a time when Crown had some respected audiophile creds, what happened there. I owned a IC 150A for a number of years back in the 70-80s, great piece, I only replaced it with a Steve McCormack Line Drive after a complete electronics overhaul paying close attention to the surrounding gears impedance's, drive voltage, etc; to optimize it for passive preamp use. The resulting system put it very close to SOTA performance at a comparatively very low cost. But I ramble OT here, LOL
Bottom line, can a pro audio component ever gain respect in the pages of WBF or alike? LOL

Not as much as at one time stands in the way. At one time you had to hook up a computer. Well now most people hook up computers to DACs and do plenty with software to make it work. Pro interfaces have no remote, but most playback software has remote over phones or tablets. So you aren't giving up any real convenience.

Yes I think pro gear, unless equally expensive is looked down upon as rough work-a-day gear. Of course it is only used to make the music everyone listens to. Not that such a fact will change anyone's opinion. I think the odd bit of super overachieving affordable gear if it becomes known could find a sizeable niche, but likely not more than that. It simply isn't designed primarily for listening only nor will it be marketed that way. That Behringer that has already been tested should be on any audiophile's list who is on a really tight budget. The other good thing is these devices are great for controlling powered monitor speakers.

Now can anyone come up with a system for the same money that beats a U-phoria 204HD and a pair of JBL LSR 305s? This becomes a seriously good system for $339 which could use tablets, many phones or any computer for its source. Most audiophiles can't connect the two ends of a USB cable for that kind of money!

 

[Sal1950]

Now can anyone come up with a system for the same money that beats a U-phoria 204HD and a pair of JBL LSR 305s?

That's one hell of a challenge!

 

[watchnerd]

Today, while price comparing for an RME ADI 2 Pro, I stumbled across this little guy, which is in the Top 20 bestselling DACs sold on Thomann:

https://www.thomannmusic.com/swissonic_converter_da_24_96.htm

$34!!!!

It appears to be an "own brand" DAC made for Thomann's retail efforts. In the USA, it would be akin to Guitar Center or Sweetwater making their own DAC.

 

[amirm]

Pretty amazing prices. THe top of the box says Swissonic which has been around a while.

 

[watchnerd]

Pretty amazing prices. THe top of the box says Swissonic which has been around a while.

Only SPDIF inputs, though at that price point it might be a wise choice.

 

[RayDunzl]

The top of the box says Swissonic

"Swissonic is one of our own brands. The products are made by various
well-known manufacturers, who also produce equipment for thomann
many other famous brands. As a result of importing these directly, without
middlemen, we can offer you brand quality at very low prices."

Gee, I wonder if it is imported from Switzerland?

 

[Blumlein 88]

"Swissonic is one of our own brands. The products are made by various
well-known manufacturers, who also produce equipment for thomann
many other famous brands. As a result of importing these directly, without
middlemen, we can offer you brand quality at very low prices."

Gee, I wonder if it is imported from Switzerland?

My guess is if it comes from Switzerland they unload the slo-boat from China before shipping it to Thomann.

BTW, was recommending for someone who needed optical inputs the Asus DGX PCI-E sound card because it has optical out. It has okay specs for sound and I wonder if it would be an alternative for cheap sound with a computer source. I knew someone using the optical out, and that it worked well. I would test it, but they no longer have that machine. I know most sound cards like this are prone to leak noises form the workings of the computer. But Asus Xonar Essence cards are a different thing. Of course they are $200+ unlike this $50 or so card.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132052

This $100 Asus Xonar DX has 116 db SNR, does toslink output too.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

 

[RayDunzl]

I knew someone using the optical out (from PC), and that it worked well.

My mobo has Optical Out because I picked one that had it onboard. I use a cheap 25 foot cable.

My 5 year plan I7 build is now in its ninth year. (Wow, is that right?)

win7:

Original Install Date: 10/27/2009, 16:47:23 PM

Yeah, I built it toward the end of 2008 and retried linux Deja Vu and ran Hasta La Vista for a year.