I recently had a chance to try the demo unit of DAC8 pro. I’m new in this forum and a complete novice to the world of high fidelity audio. So, please forgive me if I write something nonsense.
I wished trying DSD files on my MacBook Pro with Roon, but I found that DoP did not work on this demo unit. Before the demo unit arrived, Pavel wrote me “While the production DAC8 PRO and DAC8 Stereo are going to have our own USB input implementation with XMOS, the demo unit does rely on a 3rd party USB board and I'm not sure if it does support DoP”.
My setup: MacBook Pro (Roon)-> USB ->DAC8 Pro-> XLR-> Stax SRM-727II ->Stax SR-L700.
With the DoP option, there was just a low level of noise heard. “Convert to PCM” option worked fine.
In my listening test, I compared DAC8 Pro with Topping D50. This was NOT a rigorous AB test by any means, and it was based on just my fuzzy short-term memory of the sound and subjective impression. I listened to classical piano, string ensemble, choir and orchestra music. Since converting DSD to PCM seemed not to be a good option, I used only native PCM files (AIFF 192/24 or 96/24) for this comparison.
DAC8 Pro consistently reproduced more neutral (i.e. realistic) sound with higher resolution than D50. For example, the subtle nuance of the quiet sustain sound of a piano was better reproduced (i.e. close to the real sounding) with DAC8 than D50. The sound of individual instrument in the orchestra was better resolved with DAC8. It seemed that the difference between DAC8 and D50 was more noticeable with higher resolution files. 96/24 files sometimes sounded just slightly better on DAC8.
I really liked the solid feel of DAC8 and its large display, particularly after looking at the tiny display of D50. Overall, DAC8 left a really good impression on me.