Bargain DAC Suggestions?

[amirm]

Amir could add it to his todo list. Define measurements for audio plankton.

I could do as it is a trivial measurement. I just toss a dice and whatever it says, will be the number!

 

[Thomas savage]

Ask this guy, he must know his plankton from his sea cucumber ...

 

[Andrex]

Hi,

my first post here, so a big thanks for sharing informations of such quality.

As a bargain DAC/amp, may I suggest the SMSL AD18 and/or the FX AUDIO 802?

Both are FDA (full digital amplifier). They use different chips, TAS5342 or STA326. Other companies produce PWM DAC/amp, an old technology in fact. Nuprime, Nad, etc...

Price is approximately 100$.

Here, in Western Europe, the hype for that product is incredible. Everything has been written. Giant killers, "I've sold my 10.000$ system", "best treble ever heard", bla bla bla. Close of thousand pages on the forums.

I'm really curious how they mesure. As DAC and as amp.

Have a nice day

 

[stunta]

Hi,

my first post here, so a big thanks for sharing informations of such quality.

As a bargain DAC/amp, may I suggest the SMSL AD18 and/or the FX AUDIO 802?

Both are FDA (full digital amplifier). They use different chips, TAS5342 or STA326. Other companies produce PWM DAC/amp, an old technology in fact. Nuprime, Nad, etc...

Price is approximately 100$.

Here, in Western Europe, the hype for that product is incredible. Everything has been written. Giant killers, "I've sold my 10.000$ system", "best treble ever heard", bla bla bla. Close of thousand pages on the forums.

I'm really curious how they mesure. As DAC and as amp.

Have a nice day

Hello and welcome!

See here. Amir has already ordered the SMSL AD18 so it should be in his backlog (which I presume is rather large ATM). I recently got the SMSL AD18 for my den tv system and I am quite impressed. I didn't know it was the rage in W. Europe.

 

[Veri]

Hoping for an EL Dac review some day! Sexy looking DAC which I hope measures well.

 

[RayDunzl]

Hoping for an EL Dac review some day! Sexy looking DAC which I hope measures well.

Another JDS Labs DAC was measured here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ement-and-review-of-jds-labs-usb-ol-dac.2244/

 

[Veri]

Another JDS Labs DAC was measured here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ement-and-review-of-jds-labs-usb-ol-dac.2244/

Fair enough! the EL Dac features an Optical Audio implementation though which if I understand correctly makes it possible for amirm to test measured bits of resolution

 

[amirm]

Fair enough! the EL Dac features an Optical Audio implementation though which if I understand correctly makes it possible for amirm to test measured bits of resolution

Yes, in hindsight I wish I was not economizing and getting the one with Toslink input.

 

[edd9000]

https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Ject-Pre...2&sr=8-2&keywords=Pro-Ject+Pre+Box+S2+Digital

Looks interesting.

 

[amirm]

Good to see it available in Amazon. I was searching high and low for it last year to no avail.

It costs good bit of money though. How much interest is there in it? And who will buy it from me after testing???

 

[edd9000]

Good to see it available in Amazon. I was searching high and low for it last year to no avail.

It costs good bit of money though. How much interest is there in it? And who will buy it from me after testing???

I'm mostly interested as I use Tidal and like the idea of MQA

 

[amirm]

Yeh I forgot about that. Has its designer post any measurements?

 

[edd9000]

http://www.box-designs.com/main.php?prod=preboxs2digital&cat=default&lang=en

Not that I can see

 

[amirm]

Strange seeing how he was involved in measuring other products in the past...

 

[stunta]

I almost got the pro-ject. It comes with a nice aluminium remote, but the lack of XLR out at this price point dissuaded me. I only run 4 feet connections so it probably doesn't matter, but I just feel better with XLR.

I thought I saw hifi news post measurements somewhere, but I can't find it anymore. All I could find was this.

 

[amirm]

Ah yes I do remember HiFi news and the measurements. Alas, HiFi News measurements have shrunk so much as to not be very usable anymore. It is just a tiny graph or two. And Paul Miller no longer maintains his own site where he had put extensive measurements there.

 

[Wombat]

How is the planktons on your headphones dear sir? Invention of super best audio friends forum. Best I can tell it is like a gestalt feeling of fine details of live music. Fish swim in the ocean while super tiny, ephemeral, indefinable, unmeasurable plankton are around those swimming fish. So a headphone with good planktons, impossible to measure or even fully describe, is a quality you know when you hear it like the fish swimming among the microscopic planktons. A microscopic ultra detail quality of life in a headphone's sound.

Yes, it's BS. Yes they should be ashamed of themselves. But only the super special super best audio friends participants discuss the all important planktons.

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...ton-and-the-ability-to-resolve-properly.2801/

Amir could add it to his todo list. Define measurements for audio plankton.

Plankton produce oxygen from ingested bacteria. Could they feed on audiophile BS to produce the much talked about 'air' in replay over headphones?

 

[amirm]

Amir has already ordered the SMSL AD18 so it should be in his backlog (which I presume is rather large ATM).

My AD18 arrived today! And yes, the pile is pretty big right now.

 

[ManglerFi]

amirm, what's the status on the Pro-ject Pre Box S2 Digital? Have you ordered one yet? I have one and might be willing to send it out for testing.

I'm liking it for the most part. The headphone amp is not very powerful but it all sounds good to me. This being my first real push into audiophile land with my first DAC/Amp unit. I would be very interested in how those 400$ stack up to the rest of what you have measured and for future reference going forward.

 

[amirm]

amirm, what's the status on the Pro-ject Pre Box S2 Digital? Have you ordered one yet? I have one and might be willing to send it out for testing.

Welcome to the forum!

I have not ordered one but would love to test it. Please PM me if interested and I can provide my mailing address. I think it is an interesting product to test and benchmark.