Cheap dac with solid chipset (aliexpress)

[deafaudiophile]

Looking for a cheap small DAC I can hook up to my NVIDIA shield and my fosi bt20a pro.

My AV receiver recently died, and replacing it for a smaller, list power system, problem is neither my NVIDIA shield nor my TV have analogue out, do I'm either looking for an HDMI extractor or a DAC.

I've chosen the DAC as it'll probably give me higher bitrate over stock.

Budget is as low as it can, so using dongles for phones is not out of the question.
I've seen the ALC5686 is solid?

Thanks

 

[staticV3]

If your TV has HDMI ARC, I'd get the SMSL PS100.

 

[deafaudiophile]

If your TV has HDMI ARC, I'd get the SMSL PS100.

Hope you don't mind a few stupid questions.
Wouldn't a DAC with a higher bitrate be better? If it can be had for the same price? Maybe I can compromise on the inputs for a different chipset?
Is there a need to do this via HDMI arc? I can easily just plug a USB DAC to the shield TV and avoid the TV all together, or I'm missing something?

Thanks

 

[staticV3]

Hope you don't mind a few stupid questions.

Not at all

Wouldn't a DAC with a higher bitrate be better?

No. Higher bitrate (sample rate) does not mean higher sound quality.

Is there a need to do this via HDMI arc? I can easily just plug a USB DAC to the shield TV and avoid the TV all together, or I'm missing something?

There is no need to do this via HDMI ARC. However, there are some advantages.

With ARC, you can use the TV remote to control volume, and if you ever use another source besides the Shield (BD Player, Console, TV App) then those will all go through the same DAC.

Even if you don't care about that and want to connect via USB, I think the PS100 is still a smart choice ($30, competent DAC chip, native RCA out 2Vrms output, multiple input types should you need them).

 

[deafaudiophile]

I have a chance to get the Fosi Q4 almost free, how does the above compare in terms of sound quality? no HDMI, but it has optical and USB

Thanks