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Cheap DAC (SPDIF to analog), Real Cable Nano Dac

Pio2001

Senior Member
Joined
May 15, 2018
Messages
317
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Location
Neuville-sur-Saône, France
Hello,
I have recently been in a situation where I was needing the old kind of DAC. Not the USB one, but the one with S/Pdif input.

I had bought a blu-ray player without paying attention, and when I unboxed it, I was surprised to see that it had no analog output ! Only S/Pdif digital out.

I thus bought a Real Cable Nano Dac for 39 euros : https://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00145360.html

I am pleased to tell that it works perfectly, and without any background noise. The headphone output of my laptop has obvious background noise when it is amplified with an external amplifier. As well as the headphone output of my computer monitor.
The Real Cable Nano Dac has a much weaker background noise. Barely audible with headphones and the external amplifier gain set to the max.


I have made some loose measurements with RMAA software. I can't however measure the DAC alone, as my computer doesn't have a digital output.
Here are all the measurements I ran :
Laptop MSI GS60 mini jack headphone output -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog in
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog out -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog in
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog out -> Sony DTC 55ES DAT deck analog in / AD-DA 48 kHz 16 bits / analog out -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog in
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog out -> Sony DTC 55ES DAT deck analog in / digital S/Pdif out -> Real Cable Nano Dac S/Pdif in / analog out -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog in
Laptop MSI GS60 HDMI digital out -> Viewsonic VP 3268-4K HDMI in / headphone output -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 analog in

All output volumes were set at 92% (that's a mistake in the measurement process). The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and Sony DTC-55ES analog inputs were set close to unity gain (+/- 2 dB).

Results :

Rmaa.png

fr.png


We can see that the laptop and graphics monitor headphone outputs are the two noisiest (-85 dB), as expected.
The headphone output of the MSI laptop has a low frequency rolloff, but not the headphone output of the Viewsonic monitor.
Actually, the Real Cable Nano Dac performs probably better than the measured -90 dB. With headphones, its background noise seemed to be at least 10 dB quieter than the -85 dB of the two headphone outputs (the headphone listenings tests use a completely different setup : Blu-ray player with an audio CD -> Nano Dac -> Arcam A85 amplifier).

In conclusion, for 39 euros, power supply included, it works like a charm.
 
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