Cheapest transparent DAC with optical?

[tsanguine]

http://www.fiio.net/en/products/7/parameters

If the published specs, and measurements are to be believed. These would be great to pair with every CCA in the house.

Nice NHT 1.3 btw, I miss my pair. I also have that same Dell optiplex in my bedroom system.

That looks fun. I might just have to buy it and send it to Amir for shit's and giggles.

 

[Olli]

and what was up with the designer

 

[garbulky]

I have the Geshelli in hand. I wanted it just to have as well as to support the creators. I currently own Focal Elears, Sennheiser HD6xx, Oppo PM3, Grado 325's, Koss porta pros, Fostex T-XO. I'm in the process of selling a few pairs. I'm really salivating over the Aeon2's and had been looking at the closed back aeon's for awhile. I need to get rid of a few before I get something new.

You never know what I will be playing with next which is why I wanted something like the Geshelli Archel2 pro on hand. View attachment 41980

I see that you have the A-100. Have you tried it with your HD6xx with the jumpers engaged?

 

[tsanguine]

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...d-measurements-of-loxjie-d10-dac-hp-amp.8699/

I've seen that one but I have to agree with Olli. Wiring that thing would drive my OCD crazy.

 

[Berwhale]

I've got a SMSL Sanskit 10th anniversary on my desk at work but figured there would be something either better or cheaper than that. Maybe I was wrong. I frequently am.

Then bring it home and blind test it to see if you can hear a difference over this vs the CCA DAC.

 

[tsanguine]

I see that you have the A-100. Have you tried it with your HD6xx with the jumpers engaged?

That was a recent aquisition that I haven't tinkered with. You have likely opened up a pandora's box by telling me there are jumpers I can play with. It sounds pretty damn amazing how it is. I got it off of Craigslist for $125.

 

[tsanguine]

Then bring it home and blind test it to see if you can hear a difference over this vs the CCA DAC.

I wonder if I can train my three year old to swap cables. Would be a good test.

 

[garbulky]

That was a recent aquisition that I haven't tinkered with. You have likely opened up a pandora's box by telling me there are jumpers I can play with. It sounds pretty damn amazing how it is. I got it off of Craigslist for $125.

It makes a difference with high impedance headphones and planars.
The direct drive mode which is engaged by the jumpers are its claim to fame. It does increase the noise floor, so there is a slight hiss, but it also unleashes the full power of that amp. The direct drive mode (which uses the jumpers that are included) has these specs
8 Ohms: 50 watts / channel
33 Ohms: 12 watts / channel
47 Ohms: 8.5 watts / channel
150 Ohms: 2.6 watts / channel
300 Ohms: 1.3 watts / channel
600 Ohms: 0.6 watts / channel
So your HD 6xx (150 ohms) and the HD600 (300 ohms) have HUGE amounts of power on tap.
They should also sound great with your planar magnetic fostex which is rated for a max input power of 3000 mwatts. Lots of punch and power.

 

[tsanguine]

It makes a difference with high impedance headphones and planars.
The direct drive mode which is engaged by the jumpers are its claim to fame. It does increase the noise floor, so there is a slight hiss, but it also unleashes the full power of that amp. The direct drive mode (which uses the jumpers that are included) has these specs
8 Ohms: 50 watts / channel
33 Ohms: 12 watts / channel
47 Ohms: 8.5 watts / channel
150 Ohms: 2.6 watts / channel
300 Ohms: 1.3 watts / channel
600 Ohms: 0.6 watts / channel
So your HD 6xx (150 ohms) and the HD600 (300 ohms) have HUGE amounts of power on tap.
They should also sound great with your planar magnetic fostex which is rated for a max input power of 3000 mwatts. Lots of punch and power.

I will try it out. I wonder if I will be able to notice.

 

[tsanguine]

http://www.fiio.net/en/products/7/parameters

If the published specs, and measurements are to be believed. These would be great to pair with every CCA in the house.

Nice NHT 1.3 btw, I miss my pair. I also have that same Dell optiplex in my bedroom system.

Looks like Amir has already done a basic measurement and it resamples everything into 44.1kHz. I don't think I'd be any better without it.

 

[tsanguine]

At this moment the SMSL M100 looks to be the most promising and inexpensive for my needs. I still want to do a double blind test between the SMSL 10th anniversary and the build in CCA DAC but not sure when I can yet.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eview-and-measurements-of-smsl-m100-dac.8842/

 

[chauct]

This might give you some data point to consider when you conduct your test between the SMSL and the built in DAC in the CCA...

So I fed the optical out of the CCA into my newly acquired D50s and the difference to my 50+ yo ears (drum roll, please) is *not* exactly day and night. My downstream equipment consists of a Parasound HCA-1500A and B&W CM5s. This is quite surprising, at least to me, considering the SINAD difference between the 2 DACs is almost 20 dB according to amirm's measurements. Note that this is not a double blind test and I had only tried to match the levels as best as I could by ear.

If there is one thing I could learn from this and was already told many times from the forum is that: if one wants a different and better sound, invest on something else other than a DAC ;-)

 

[mkawa]

geshelli enog?

 

[jsrtheta]

@amirm disdains S/PDIF inputs, because nobody uses them.

(I do.)

I do too. And AES/EBU. No USB, though.

 

[M00ndancer]

I guess I don't need it to be that transparent. A kardas board would be fine if it supported optical. Anything better as in cheaper than a topping D10? or would it be worth it just to spend a bit more for DX3pro?

This will primarily be for a chromecast audio.

The only reason I got the HAD-1 (DAC/AMP) is the features. Optical-in, analogue in and out, USB, Volume knob and headphone out. There is not enough difference between the CCA and the HAD-1 analogue outputs. Did some blind tests, volume matched as far as I could and I couldn't hear any difference.

 

[M00ndancer]

http://www.fiio.net/en/products/7/parameters

If the published specs, and measurements are to be believed. These would be great to pair with every CCA in the house.

But why? The analogue out of the CCA is good enough.

 

[bigx5murf]

But why? The analogue out of the CCA is good enough.

Worth it just to keep CCA from turning off high dynamic range mode.

 

[M00ndancer]

Worth it just to keep CCA from turning off high dynamic range mode.

HUH?
None of my units does (at least the ones that's using the analogue out).
Care to elaborate?

 

[bigx5murf]

My house thermostats are on schedule, and my summers reach 120F, with indoor temps hovering around 100F while I'm at work. In those instances, CCA sometimes freeze up. Requiring a power cycle before it starts working. Sometimes the power cycles causes it to turn off "full dynamic range". Also when you first setup a CCA, or do a factory reset, it'll also turn it off. I've observed this behavior in 4 separate units.

But when CCA is connected to an external DAC by optical. It'll always use full dynamic range mode, even when it's greyed out in the Google home settings.

 

[RayDunzl]

My house thermostats are on schedule, and my summers reach 120F, with indoor temps hovering around 100F while I'm at work. In those instances,

And I thought it got hot here.

Where are you?