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Bargain DAC Suggestions?

March Audio

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HTC M10

Just one note, this one could drive about 1volt rms, I set output to as similar as possible to the P10.

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Sal1950

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Stopped buying PITA German luxury cars, went downscale to Japanese.
What's wrong with GM or Ford?
Start thinking about insuring the prosperity of your children and grandkids.
Buy domestic products whenever possible.
 

Blumlein 88

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What's wrong with GM or Ford?
Start thinking about insuring the prosperity of your children and grandkids.
Buy domestic products whenever possible.
I think Honda had the highest US domestic content followed by Ford.
 

Sal1950

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I think Honda had the highest US domestic content followed by Ford.
And what county's economy does Honda billions of corporate profits contribute to?
 
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NWCgrad

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Has anyone here used the Behringer SRC2496 AD/DA unit? It doesn't do DSD and is limited to 24/96 but has a lot of features for $199. What I read on Gearslutz was positive.
 

Jinjuku

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Has anyone here used the Behringer SRC2496 AD/DA unit? It doesn't do DSD and is limited to 24/96 but has a lot of features for $199. What I read on Gearslutz was positive.

I've put a few in. The don't color the sound but lack a lot of modern features. You can do better for $199.
 

Rodney Gold

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Ive used the behringer.. sold it for $50 ...it does what it says on the tin but was subjectively bettered by other dacs I tried at the time.
 

Thomas savage

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Ive used the behringer.. sold it for $50 ...it does what it says on the tin but was subjectively bettered by other dacs I tried at the time.
Have we got to the bottom of why this might be?

It's all very well looking at measurements that largely show differences that are below the audible threshold so are academic for all intents and purposes but what are the technical reasons for certain DAC's sounding subjectively different?

Or are we saying that's impossible and it's all in the mind?
 

RayDunzl

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Have we got to the bottom of why this might be?

By looking at a single measurement? (isn't that what the majority of the displayed tests here have been?)

I'm not saying that can't be interestingly informative, but seems a bit shallow to me.

I mean, my little $20 Signstek USB t0 S/PDIF converter got weird on test #2, different sample rate, on its analog outputs (which I don't intend to use):

Green 44.1kHz, Red, 48kHz, both unsmoothed

index.php


Amir took a look at it...

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...view-and-measurements-of-budget-20-dacs.1316/
 
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tomelex

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Have we got to the bottom of why this might be?

It's all very well looking at measurements that largely show differences that are below the audible threshold so are academic for all intents and purposes but what are the technical reasons for certain DAC's sounding subjectively different?

Or are we saying that's impossible and it's all in the mind?


amplitude, time, phase and frequency (including frequencies added) and noise and other modulations (such as noise as is known) these are the things that can change. The end result is the harmonic spray, the added things to the signal, by each DAC, even by each component in the circuit when you get right down to it.

Then of course, at some point, these things in total drop below our thresholds to hear. But, always, each part of the circuit will add one or all of these things as the signal goes through it, that's why there are differences to be heard, however, blind testing of course is really needed to discriminate between very closely aligned units, even in the same unit between the left and right channel, where nulls of maybe 30 to 40 db are common between channels, and should be audible with the right stimulus of music combinations.

Music probes all those possible aberrations in a more dynamic and complex way than two pure sinewaves in an IMD test for example.
 

RayDunzl

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Music probes all those possible aberrations in a more dynamic and complex way than two pure sinewaves in an IMD test for example.

Who can quantify the problems when music is the signal?
 

Fitzcaraldo215

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Who can quantify the problems when music is the signal?
Aw, shucks. Any old audiophile can do that sighted any day of the week, or so it is thought in folklore.

I agree that music, ears, biases, recording quality, masking, etc. etc. etc. mean music is a really tough, unrevealing test signal.
 

March Audio

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Have we got to the bottom of why this might be?

It's all very well looking at measurements that largely show differences that are below the audible threshold so are academic for all intents and purposes but what are the technical reasons for certain DAC's sounding subjectively different?

Or are we saying that's impossible and it's all in the mind?

As has already been said the picture has to be built up from many measurements.

Also, as I found with my speakers project, a surprisingly small slope in frequency response will change the perception, so small differences in measurements shouldnt be ignored.

However generally I find that many dacs do sound very similar, and rather than one being specifically better than another, they just sound subtly different. You can't hear any more with one over the other. So after that the variables of the rest of the system come into play and of course the individuals preference.

An individuals subjective preference should not be interpreted as one dac being better than another.
 
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Dialectic

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Hi Amir -

Are detailed test results on the Topping D30 coming? From the USB/SPDIF test, it appears to have very decent performance over USB and has the solid XMOS USB interface chip. It also looks nice (a lot nicer than the Behringer), and it supports DSD. While lacking the versatility of the Behringer, perhaps it is less of a mixed bag in terms of performance.
 
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