Hi,
I have always bought soundcards or USB interfaces to use with music production. I currently have a budget Lexicon Alpha from about 2011 which I would like to upgrade as I think some newer DACs or USB Audio interfaces might sound better for listening back to music. I have been listening to a bit of 80s rock like Guns n Roses which has a lot going on and I think the DAC on the Lexicon can't quite seperate all the threads of the music. I'm looking at making a headphone amp to go with whatever I buy. The Lexicon has ok converters (was considered good when it came out) but the headphone out is not great.
So I was reading the reviews of the Topping DACs and the D30 sounds like a good bet. Or possibly the Fiio D5 as it has a headphone amp.
The alternatives to the Topping or Fiio would be something like a MOTU M2, SSL 2 or some other low-ish price USB recording interface. Possibly an older MOTU firewire device. I would love an RME inerface but they are about 2 to 3x the price of these options.
There are 2 concerns though,
1. Would a "Hi-Fi" DAC like the Topping D30 have low enough latency to use it for soft synths played from a MIDI keyboard? (sub 10ms would be ideal)
2. Would having un-balanced RCA outputs be an issue if I want to connect up powered monitor speakers at a later date?
3. Would having a DAC with no volume control fed through a pre-amp (Cyrus 5) degrade the signal quality vs Audio interface with a built in volume knob?
4. Does a Hi-Fi dedicated DAC sound better?
(My plan is to have the DAC feeding into a Cyrus 5 Hi-Fi amp for the moment which would power my hi-fi speakers, but I may want to add a pair of near field monitors to the setup at some point, because of where the Hi-Fi speakers are placed. I am thinking that a simple Unbalanced to Balanced DIY PCB board connected close to the Pre-Amp out of the Cyrus amp might work well? Do the DACS that have balanced out just have a balanced driver board inside or is the whole signal path balanced? I have not worked that out.. Would it even matter as long as the monitors have short-ish RCA leads, like less than 2m?
Its really hard to find comparisons between the Hifi DACs and the Recording interfaces, it seems there are 2 or 3 sub-sets of people on different forums who are interested in specific qualities of the units but dont know much about the hardware available outside of their interest area. For example its quite hard to find what DAC chips are inside some units.
Price in the UK for these items are about:
Topping D30 £75
Fiio D5 £150
SSL 2 £165
MOTU M2 £165
MOTU Ultralite MK3 (used) £160
I have always bought soundcards or USB interfaces to use with music production. I currently have a budget Lexicon Alpha from about 2011 which I would like to upgrade as I think some newer DACs or USB Audio interfaces might sound better for listening back to music. I have been listening to a bit of 80s rock like Guns n Roses which has a lot going on and I think the DAC on the Lexicon can't quite seperate all the threads of the music. I'm looking at making a headphone amp to go with whatever I buy. The Lexicon has ok converters (was considered good when it came out) but the headphone out is not great.
So I was reading the reviews of the Topping DACs and the D30 sounds like a good bet. Or possibly the Fiio D5 as it has a headphone amp.
The alternatives to the Topping or Fiio would be something like a MOTU M2, SSL 2 or some other low-ish price USB recording interface. Possibly an older MOTU firewire device. I would love an RME inerface but they are about 2 to 3x the price of these options.
There are 2 concerns though,
1. Would a "Hi-Fi" DAC like the Topping D30 have low enough latency to use it for soft synths played from a MIDI keyboard? (sub 10ms would be ideal)
2. Would having un-balanced RCA outputs be an issue if I want to connect up powered monitor speakers at a later date?
3. Would having a DAC with no volume control fed through a pre-amp (Cyrus 5) degrade the signal quality vs Audio interface with a built in volume knob?
4. Does a Hi-Fi dedicated DAC sound better?
(My plan is to have the DAC feeding into a Cyrus 5 Hi-Fi amp for the moment which would power my hi-fi speakers, but I may want to add a pair of near field monitors to the setup at some point, because of where the Hi-Fi speakers are placed. I am thinking that a simple Unbalanced to Balanced DIY PCB board connected close to the Pre-Amp out of the Cyrus amp might work well? Do the DACS that have balanced out just have a balanced driver board inside or is the whole signal path balanced? I have not worked that out.. Would it even matter as long as the monitors have short-ish RCA leads, like less than 2m?
Its really hard to find comparisons between the Hifi DACs and the Recording interfaces, it seems there are 2 or 3 sub-sets of people on different forums who are interested in specific qualities of the units but dont know much about the hardware available outside of their interest area. For example its quite hard to find what DAC chips are inside some units.
Price in the UK for these items are about:
Topping D30 £75
Fiio D5 £150
SSL 2 £165
MOTU M2 £165
MOTU Ultralite MK3 (used) £160