Do you remember your first DAC?

[Xulonn]

Any other old-timers care to share a sentimental journey or two?

20 years ago - a few years before I got into MP3 digital music files - I owned a California Audio Labs "Delta" CD transport and matching "Alpha" DAC that had a pair of 12AX7 vacuum tubes to add a bit of second harmonic and "buffer out" some of the supposed digital nasties. At that time I owned a pair of Apogee Centaurus Ribbon Monitors and a Jolida 202A integrated EL34 amplifier. All sitting on the top or my big classic oak roll-top desk in a tiny upstairs office in our condo.

I think my version of the Alpha was one of the first 24/96 DACS on the market, but MP3's were new and the first portable MP3 players did not appear until about 1999, so that DAC was strictly for my CDs.

About the same time that I owned the CAL Audio digital gear, the pioneering digital music software app "WinAmp" was released (1997?), and a few years later became my first computer MP3 player. It's hard to believe that I still use it to this day to play digital music files on my Windows 10 PC - and it does play FLAC and other hi-res formats. Also, I bought a Logitech Squeezebox Classic back in about 2004, and still use the Logitech Media Server-based Daphile digital music software in my main system, where it feeds my SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amplifier. (For portable use, I now use my Android tablet or Cayin DAP.)

Although I've never been part of the Apple/Mac universe/continuum, there are still some common threads that run through my years in computers and digital technology years with Microsoft, Linux and Android systems that go way back to 1984 and DOS 2. And these are all technologies that I never imagined in my youth, in spite of being an avid reader of science fiction. Any young person reading this can download and watch a couple of 1950's science fiction movies and see what my contemporaries thought the future would be like.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Meridian 203. A Philips Bitstream based DAC. Can't remember if I still had a Conrad-Johnson Sonograph CD player for a transport or the Mod Squad CD Player with delrin damping disc for a transport. If I had the Sonograph it was replaced fairly soon by the Mod Squad.

Briefly had a C.A.L. Delta transport myself, but moved onto to something else.

I think this was in 1991. Or maybe 1990. The 203 was new product and Jim Smith ordered one for me.

 

[solderdude]

 

[Veri]

This one https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...idelity-v-dac-ii-measurement-and-review.1942/

One of the first budget async usb DACs I think around 90 SINAD, for me it definitely did the job for many years.

 

[Willem]

Apart from the internal DACs in various disc players, the first external one was when I started experimenting with computer audio. The Behringer UCA 202 was a serious improvement over the built in DACs of various computers, and of laptops in particular. I still use three in secundary systems. One is in a Tivoli Audio Radio 2 system that I take with me when I work abroad for any length of time (as I quite often do). That is just about as heavy and large as I can take in a suitcase, and just acceptable enough for sound quality. The Behringer DAC also has the advantage of a lower output than most, which works fine with the quite sensitive input of the Tivoli.
I must admit that I think motherboard audio has improved a lot in recent years (any measurements out there?). For my more resolving systems I now use an ODAC in my home office (where I spend quite some time) and a Pioneer U-o5 in the main system because it has mutiple inputs.

 

[soundwave76]

Yeah, the small NuForce USB DAC which was then later destroyed by NwAvGuy in his review. Sold it then immediatelly.

 

[Daverz]

Back in the early 2000s I bought a Perpetual Technologies P-3A DAC (though not the companion P-1A digital processor), an RME soundcard, and an expensive measurement mic to do some experiments with digital room correction. I can't recall the room correction software I was using, it was Linux based. I never could get good sound out of this. I tried the DAC again several years ago, and it sounded pretty bad.

Measurements here: https://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/455

Other DACs I still have are the Cambridge Audio 840C (CD drawer doesn't work and there is bad connection somewhere in the balanced output, but I think it still works as a DAC on the unbalanced outputs. I'll never buy anything from Cambridge Audio again.) and a Neko Audio D100 (which still holds up pretty well).

Not included are the Behringer and M-Audio stuff I use mainly for A/D rather than D/A.

 

[captain paranoia]

A Ferranti ZN428...

 

[M00ndancer]

Creative DDTS-30, my first DAC/amp, used it to get digital sound from my Nforce based AMD computer.
Since then I've use an Asus DGX soundcard but since I got better headphones I reverted to the DDTS-30.
So the last 2 years I've been using is again, a bit of a pain in the butt to have to replace the batteries after 8 hours.
I replaced it with the HAD-1 a few months ago.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I will not indulge you in showing my first DAC ... What it cost then, not converted to current USD is 2.5 times what I paid for my entire current HT setup ... PJ and screen included ...

 

[Ultrasonic]

I can't remember the exact model (maybe the 5?) but my first DAC was an Arcam Delta Black Box looking something like this:

I bought it second hand in around 2002, with a Delta 250 transport.

 

[Eurasian]

My first DAC was a Meridian 203, also. I bought it along with the matching Meridian transport for a song at $1200 new. I have attached the Stereophile test report if anyone is interested -- seems to have respectable performance even by today's standards. After the transport became unreliable, I put them both in storage and forgot all about them. I need to get the DAC out and try to hear a difference compared to my Benchmark.

Incidentally, I replaced the Meridian gear with a Sony CDP-D500. That mother is a beast and seems unbreakable. I strongly suggest this unit for anybody looking for a fantastic used CD player or transport.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/meridian-203-da-processor-measurements

 

[Apesbrain]

Any other old-timers care to share a sentimental journey or two?

20 years ago - a few years before I got into MP3 digital music files - I owned a California Audio Labs "Delta" CD transport and matching "Alpha" DAC that had a pair of 12AX7 vacuum tubes to add a bit of second harmonic and "buffer out" some of the supposed digital nasties. At that time I owned a pair of Apogee Centaurus Ribbon Monitors and a Jolida 202A integrated EL34 amplifier. All sitting on the top or my big classic oak roll-top desk in a tiny upstairs office in our condo.

I think my version of the Alpha was one of the first 24/96 DACS on the market, but MP3's were new and the first portable MP3 players did not appear until about 1999, so that DAC was strictly for my CDs.

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About the same time that I owned the CAL Audio digital gear, the pioneering digital music software app "WinAmp" was released (1997?), and a few years later became my first computer MP3 player. It's hard to believe that I still use it to this day to play digital music files on my Windows 10 PC - and it does play FLAC and other hi-res formats. Also, I bought a Logitech Squeezebox Classic back in about 2004, and still use the Logitech Media Server-based Daphile digital music software in my main system, where it feeds my SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amplifier. (For portable use, I now use my Android tablet or Cayin DAP.)

Although I've never been part of the Apple/Mac universe/continuum, there are still some common threads that run through my years in computers and digital technology years with Microsoft, Linux and Android systems that go way back to 1984 and DOS 2. And these are all technologies that I never imagined in my youth, in spite of being an avid reader of science fiction. Any young person reading this can download and watch a couple of 1950's science fiction movies and see what my contemporaries thought the future would be like.

I still have those two CAL units in service; the DAC is used every day. Mine was a 24/96 retrofit, so it has a small daughter board above the main board. Running Sovtek LPS tubes. Converts the bits coming out my Squeezebox Touch and sends them out to a Threshold pre-amp and power amp of about the same vintage. Enjoy!

 

[JohnYang1997]

ibasso d0

 

[March Audio]

I can't remember the exact model (maybe the 5?) but my first DAC was an Arcam Delta Black Box looking something like this:

I bought it second hand in around 2002, with a Delta 250 transport.

Me too. I remember how disappointed I was realising how little different it sounded from the Marantz cd player I had.

 

[Svperstar]

MHDT Paradisea+ Tube DAC when NOS DACS were all the rage. Paid a cool $650

Looks nice eh? Well it sounded absolutely horrible. I even had my non-audiophile friend listen and she said "it sounds like parts of the song are missing its strange". Sold it for 600 almost immediately so I was not out a whole lot.

 

[Ultrasonic]

Me too. I remember how disappointed I was realising how little different it sounded from the Marantz cd player I had.

Ha! Yes. I seem to remember I wasn't exactly blown away by it either . I bought it secondhand for not a huge amount, and I many even have ended up selling it for a profit so no harm done.

 

[House de Kris]

I got a Lucid ADA-1000 many many years ago. It used the ubiquitous (at the time) SPDIF receiver from Crystal Semiconductor. This made it super easy to put a scope probe on Master Clock and visually see the different jitter performance of various SPDIF cables. With practice, you could identify cables by the jitter display.

Here's an Internet picture I just stole:

 

[hvbias]

I believe it was a Monster Cable Entech, this would have been somewhere in the 2004-2005 range. Using it with a E-MU 0404 PCI digital output.

I still remember fondly there was a growing movement at Headfi with people that were abandoning CD players and switching to external DACs with a computer as source. I believe this is the first forum where I saw this happening since the forum has always had a younger demographic.

This is not including internal/external soundcards, I would have had those going back earlier like the Hercules Game Theater XP I mentioned in another thread. Or some other Creative device I forget the name of.

 

[restorer-john]

My first external D/A converter was a Rotel RDP-980. I still use it today for my TV audio, along with a little Rotel matching 2ch amplifier.

A beautiful design with an early Asahi Kasei Microsystems (AKM) switched capacitor PWM D/A, plenty of inputs, a remote control and chock full of premium parts (heaps of audiophile approved Rubycon Blackgates etc)

(internet pics)

(Note to Schiit: This is how PCB transformers can be securely mounted- note the steel auxilliary bracket they are screwed to? Also, see the elephanthide covers over any mains voltage parts?- this prevents electrocution.)