High Performance mid-priced reference DACs

[Jinjuku]

I am not too hopeful given this kind of soldering job (second picture):

Agreed. Looks like a horrible flow job.

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

Well, George from Exasound got to me really quick and offered a good discount so I went for it! Still it was fair amount of money so I will be substituting hotdogs for shrimp and steak dinners for a few weeks.

Congratulations on an excellent choice. Kal uses a Mch Exasound, as do I, and a good friend has an E32. We are all quite happy with them. I think George's engineering is top notch.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I am not too hopeful given this kind of soldering job (second picture):

The solder seems to have bridged the pads under that Xmos ASIC. As a minimum, it could use some cleaning of the solder balls everywhere.

Yikes! That looks very bad.

 

[amirm]

I don't know which is more bad: that it is soldered so poorly or that they don't know it is soldered poorly and posted the picture!

Anyway the real production may be different. It is not prime shipping so it is on slow boat from China. Estimated delivery is up to a month and half from now!!!

 

[Thomas savage]

I don't know which is more bad: that it is soldered so poorly or that they don't know it is soldered poorly and posted the picture!

Anyway the real production may be different. It is not prime shipping so it is on slow boat from China. Estimated delivery is up to a month and half from now!!!

...or " don't know which is more bad " .. Christ amir, " more bad" ??

 

[astr0b0y]

Yeah pretty sure it’s "more baderer’

 

[Blumlein 88]

It could only be worse if it's more baddest?

 

[Thomas savage]

Poll
What's worse, amirs butchering of the English language or these guys butchered soldering?

50/50 imo

 

[svart-hvitt]

Poll
What's worse, amirs butchering of the English language or these guys butchered soldering?

50/50 imo

I always thought there's a link between good language, grammar and design skills...

So I guess I go for 50/50 as well

 

[DonH56]

Bad soldering. I can live with Amir's English and it doesn't cost me anything (significant). Anyone who thinks engineers in general exhibit proper grammar at all, or any, time is in for a rude awakening. Bad soldering could lead to costly, time-consuming repairs. Bad English ain't that bad.

 

[svart-hvitt]

Bad soldering. I can live with Amir's English and it doesn't cost me anything (significant). Anyone who thinks engineers in general exhibit proper grammar at all, or any, time is in for a rude awakening. Bad soldering could lead to costly, time-consuming repairs. Bad English ain't that bad.

Agree: Soldering is handicraft and can be done by low-skill labour. Design means you need clarity of mind as well.

 

[RayDunzl]

What's worse, amirs butchering of the English language or these guys butchered soldering?

I'll let you know after you patch up your spelling.

(no problem in this case, except for some missing punctuation - amir's butchering)

 

[Thomas savage]

I'll let you know after you patch up your spelling.

(no problem in this case, except for some missing punctuation - amir's butchering)

Yes but one would expect nothing less than nigh on incoherent babble and butchering from me.

Thankfully spell check helps, I'd have no chance spelling words like 'conceited ' if not for predictive text/spell check.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Bad soldering. Even butchered grammar can serve the needed purpose of communication. For instance I had no issues for even a microsecond knowing what the concept is behind Amir's post.

Bad soldering will not serve the function of solder which is to connect parts of the circuit together well enough for the device to function properly and to continue functioning.

 

[svart-hvitt]

Bad soldering. Even butchered grammar can serve the needed purpose of communication. For instance I had no issues for even a microsecond knowing what the concept is behind Amir's post.

Bad soldering will not serve the function of solder which is to connect parts of the circuit together well enough for the device to function properly and to continue functioning.

"Kill him not wait for me."

 

[watchnerd]

Take a look at the Roland Super UA for $500

http://www.rolandus.com/products/super_ua/

I have one of those. I use it for portable recording in places where I can bring my laptop.

In places where I can't, I use a Shure Motiv MV88 + iPhone (which does a lot better than you'd think).

 

[SoniMax]

Let me revive this thread.
Has any one of you tried the SMSL M9. I think it goes for around 400-500$
It seems like a nice unit but I couldn't find any measurements of it and hardly any reviews.

 

[Sal1950]

Let me revive this thread.
Has any one of you tried the SMSL M9. I think it goes for around 400-500$
It seems like a nice unit but I couldn't find any measurements of it and hardly any reviews.

Interesting, a gaggle reveals they have a number of units at varying prices. This one is well spec'd but never heard of them before this?
https://www.shenzhenaudio.com/smsl-...-dac-decoder-balance-headphone-amplifier.html

 

[Sythrix]

Let me revive this thread.
Has any one of you tried the SMSL M9. I think it goes for around 400-500$
It seems like a nice unit but I couldn't find any measurements of it and hardly any reviews.

Just didn't seem worth it to me. For ~$50 more you could get the DX7s, which has balanced line-outs and a set of known measurements from Amir. It really irks me when a DAC has a balanced headphone jack, but not balanced line-outs ( the upcoming Monoprice THX DAC/AMP is this way as well).

Only benefit seems to be its readily available from Amazon, while the DX7s is not (yet).

Kinda stopped my interest in its tracks when I thought about it like that. Of course, if you think you'll never care about balanced for anything you may do in the future, then it could be a non-issue for you.

 

[SoniMax]

I copped a used one for 230$ to have something while my R2R11 is on the way to China for repair. Hopefully it will make do.