It looks like it’s going to be a bit before the 9038D makes its way to market so I’m looking for an alternative that’s available now. Main requirement is that it’s USB powered and can operate in a line/pre-out mode. The less bells and whistles the better. I’m going to use this between my PC and L30.
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What Dongle DACs can operate in line out mode?
- Thread starter Illtrick
- Start date
All of USB DAC dongles operate in lineout mode (-0 dBFS in digital volume) when fed with an input that has a very high resistive load such as an amp
BillG
Major Contributor
I'm using an Apple USB-C to 3.5mm dongle into the preamp section of my integrated without a problem. I run it at 100% volume, and it doesn't clip. 
- Thread Starter
- #5
This is a good suggestion. $9 is a cheap experiment.I'm using an Apple USB-C to 3.5mm dongle into the preamp section of my integrated without a problem. I run it at 100% volume, and it doesn't clip.
- Thread Starter
- #6
It’s still under development, trying to solve LTE interference issues. That translates to me (just my educated guess) to a minimum of 4 months if everything went well and 6 months more realistically for low scale production.
I’m not the one to ask about performance differences, the key features to me was that it can be set to “fixed” volume mode and is single ended, not balanced like the 9038S.
BillG
Major Contributor
It's transparent to Redbook CD specification. Since that's what I'm normally listening to, and anything else gets down sampled by my music player/Windows, it's all that I need...
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/
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- Oct 25, 2019
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The more important question is which dongles output 2v when at 0dBFS- there are still plenty out there that top out at 1 or 1.5v. If you were to use as a like for like substitute for a "standard" desktop RCA outputting DAC.
I have a question.
I have ordered the S.M.S.L SP 200 amplifier from Amazon at a good price and I just need a good dac that supports native MQA and DSD, but they are expensive and I only have 90 dollars, so I decided to buy a dac dongle and bought the Linsoul Audirect Atom2 MQA, and what i want to do is connect atom2 as a dac to computer and connect smsl sp200 amp with rca to 3.5mm cable to atom2 dac dongle, because i need more amplification for my headphones.
My question is if this smsl sp200 amp connection to Atom2 dac dongle with the rca to 3.5mm cable could work? Would the audio quality be affected?
Should be fine.
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