• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Best dac for desktop use, IEM and Bookshelf

Paulflexxer

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2024
Messages
17
Likes
0
Im using some Sigmot Supermix 4 and some Bookshelf’s from nubert.

I always switch between those two, my bookshelf’s are connected via optical cable to my mainboard, and my iem connected to an apple dongle.

My budget is around 400€ or less. Please only recommend products that are mostly listed on Amazon.

I want something where I can easily switch between those two outputs, and also latency is important, I don’t want any sound delay cause I mostly play fps games.

400€ is pretty high, I have the money, and I’m willing to spend it all, I know there are cheaper options.
I don’t need an portable dac. It’s only for desktop use.

So far I only saw dacs from fiio, the k11 for example.
 
The FiiO K11 does not have optical output, only analog and Coax SPDIF.

Though you can buy Coax SPDIF to Optical converters for around 10€ and get Optical output that way.

Fact is, there are barely any DAC+Headphone Amp combo units that also have digital SPDIF output.
FiiO and Creative are just about the only brands that come to mind.

One advantage of connecting the two devices separately to your PC as you're doing now, is that you can easily apply different EQ/frequency response correction to each, whereas with both connected to the same device you'd have to switch EQ presets manually each time you switch.

If you aren't using EQ already, I highly recommend you look into it.
Done right, it's a sound quality upgrade free of charge!
 
Last edited:
The FiiO K11 does not have optical output, only analog and Coax SPDIF.

Though you can buy Coax SPDIF to Optical converters for around 10€ and get Optical output that way.

Fact is, there are barely any DAC+Headphone Amp combo units that also have digital SPDIF output.
FiiO and Creative are just about the only brands that come to mind.

One advantage of connecting the two devices separately to your PC as you're doing now, is that you can easily apply different EQ/frequency response correction to each, whereas with both connected to the same device you'd have to switch EQ presets manually each time you switch.

If you aren't using EQ already, I highly recommend you look into it.
Don't right, it's a sound quality upgrade free of charge!
So I guess an fiio k7 would be already an better option, cause it offers also optical.

Eq is not a thing for me as of now.. I’m pretty happy how it is currently.

Maybe in future I’m going to have a look into it.
 
So I guess an fiio k7 would be already an better option, cause it offers also optical.
The FiiO K7 does not have optical out. Only optical in:

7648371.png
 
Back
Top Bottom