UPGRADING FROM DROP+Grace DAC - B3 Professional XLR or TOPPING E50 ?

[dreadknot]

i plan a upgrade an replacement from my current DROP + Grace Design Standard DAC Balanced unit

my current two picks are the TOPPING E50 & B3 Professional XLR dac both are in my price budget of 200$
which would pair an work best with my linux pc
an my Schiit stax of

Schiit Lokius 6-Band Balanced Tone Control
Schiit Magnius Balanced Headphone Amp
(all xlr connectors used)

iv got some spare trrs 1/4 to xlr cables that i can use with the e50 if i went with it

which dac use the best to go with

 

[jkim]

Unless you have any malfunctioning issue or lack of feature with your current DAC which is a very well measured (audibly transparent) AKM-based design, I wonder why you want to upgrade. Maybe you need another DAC for a different use?

 

[dreadknot]

my current one has a malfunctioning issue in one ch is outputting far lower then the other & dac sometimes loses connect from the pc
this has been this way since past the 4months an iv had the dac for almost 5 years running near 24/7
so i need a new one , i like my two picks but want so 3rd party info an advice on which is the best decent pick.

 

[jkim]

The Blafili B3 DAC with balanced XLR outputs at $109 seems to be too good to be true. But alas, according to @Jeromeof's excellent review at Head-Fi, its USB support is limited to a 16/48 bitrate.

If you need a no-frills USB DAC with balanced outputs, then there are some choices:

• SMSL D-6S (also w/ Bluetooth)
• Topping D10 Balanced
• Topping E50
• Topping D50 iii (slightly above your budget, but you should be able to find a b-stock)

Anything would serve your use case well.