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Upgrade from Stello DA100 Signature?

Lempelig

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Apr 12, 2023
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Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have been looking at upgrading my DAC for some time now, to hopefully get a better sound quality when streaming my music.
At present my path consists of:

Apple Airport Express (optical) --> Stello DA100 Signature (balanced XLR) --> DLS AMP One --> DLS M60
Sometimes I do connect with USB from my Mac to the Stello.

As the AE should be bit perfect, it seems to me that the weakest link atm is the Stello.

What I would like in a new DAC is balanced out, optical in, async USB (this is stille the best I presume) and no pre-amp or possibly passthrough/fixed line out.

I have been eyeing stuff like Topping and SMSL, but it doesn't seem to be possible to circumvent the pre-amps in these or am I missing something?

Budget is 200-400€, can anyone pass on some advice?
 

Elitzur–Vaidman

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I have been eyeing stuff like Topping and SMSL, but it doesn't seem to be possible to circumvent the pre-amps in these or am I missing something?
I'm not sure about SMSL, but I know that you can set Topping DACs to a fixed line out.
 

staticV3

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I have been eyeing stuff like Topping and SMSL, but it doesn't seem to be possible to circumvent the pre-amps in these or am I missing something?
Topping and SMSL DACs don't have traditional preamps built in.

Instead, the volume knob uses the DAC chip to reduce signal amplitude digitally, before it gets converted to analog.

With all Topping, SMSL, etc DACs, you can go into the menu and turn off this volume control, so that it's fixed at 100%.

Budget is 200-400€, can anyone pass on some advice?
Take a look at the SMSL D-6 or DO100.
 

sambol

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All of them have DAC mode, where the output level is fixed.

VqvZUHe.png
 
OP
L

Lempelig

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I'm not sure about SMSL, but I know that you can set Topping DACs to a fixed line out.
With all Topping, SMSL, etc DACs, you can go into the menu and turn off this volume control, so that it's fixed at 100%.
All of them have DAC mode, where the output level is fixed.

VqvZUHe.png
Thanks, that makes it much easier!

Topping and SMSL DACs don't have traditional preamps built in.

Instead, the volume knob uses the DAC chip to reduce signal amplitude digitally, before it gets converted to analog.
Good to know. Is it like when you adjust volume digitally by reducing bit depth, e.g. Spotify or Apple Music players?

The weakest link in your chain is your speakers, not your DAC.
That may indeed be true. By which rationale do you come to your conclusion?
 
OP
L

Lempelig

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The distortion and noise that comes out of modern DACs is orders of magnitude better than what modern speakers are capable of.
That is true. My thoughts are that, a 13 year old DAC from an age before DACs really being a thing, might not have that advantage over the speakers. At least in said magnitude. That one can high performing DACs for that low low price, and new speakers that outperform my current ones will cost at leat 10x more than a DAC, makes it easy to examine the DAC path the easiest to explore at first.
However, should it turn out that I won't get any sq improvement with atnew DAC, I'll hold off on that for now.
Sadly there doesn't seem to be any measurements of the Stello anywhere.
 
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