• 07-24-2009, 03:16 PM
    sonictonic
    Best Quality Sound and "Inexpensive" ($100-400) DAC with highest resolution
    Best Quality Sound and "Inexpensive" ($100-400) DAC with highest resolution

    Hi, I am an A&R Director and a huge FAN of music - all genres. Though I have lots of gear ( Old Marantz. and Bryston - newer Rotel) and a couple of set-ups ( Living room 5.1 Rotel ) .. my main listening is in my office..
    Intel imac
    Rotel integrated
    Nht sub amp w/sub
    Near-field- NHT Classic 3
    Room- Ohm Walsh 3x0

    I have thousands of CDs..and slowly converting my favorites to WAV files and using itunes for listening. ( at the very least using my m Intel iMac) My desire is to also download hi-res tracks from places like www.HDtracks.com and other labels that are providing 192/24=96/24 resolution.

    Many of the well-reviewed DACs I have seen in forums here ( in this price range) seem to be limited to 44.1kHz / 16 bit, I am desiring to get the best resolution ( for my ears... unaffected sound) possible that works with my system and the intel iMac. ( I will never be using a PC)

    Some I have looked at..thoughts on these or others?
    Beresford TC7510 and TC7520
    Valab NOS
    Musical Fidelity V-Dac
    Edirol UA-25
    Cambride Audio DacMagic
    M-Audio Transit

    My interest in best sound/value for dollar.
    Your ideas and input is appreciated. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice.

    ST
  • 07-25-2009, 12:16 AM
    blackraven
    I would search www.audiogon.com and look for a used Benchmark, Monarchy, or PS Audio digilink III.

    Or spend a few extra dollars and buy this PS Audio Digilink from here-

    http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PSDL3

    This is a great little DAC with a usb interface.
  • 08-02-2009, 09:45 AM
    noddin0ff
    I have this dac in my main system and am quite please with it

    http://www.pacificvalve.us/MusilandMD10.html

    Just FYI, the 44.1kHz / 16 bit resolution is typically a limitation of USB. USB wasn't designed to support higher resolution; I don't know of any computer that will output higher resolution audio along USB. Thus, most USB dacs don't support higher resolutions. Some will upconvert 44.1kHz / 16 bit signal but that adds to the price of the budget dac.

    If you use the mini-optical output on the iMac, you can support the higher resolution. All you need is this $2 part to adapt the mini-optical to Toslink.
    http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=180-968

    There's also this older thread. Lots of the DACs are still around.
    http://forums.audioreview.com/showth...ght=budget+dac

    I also have a Zhaolu 2.0 DAC. The 3.0 is out. I use this with my MacBookPro and Senns 580s and enjoy it a lot. I typically use the Audio Midi Setup application to upsample iTunes to higher res, before it goes optically to the DAC.
    http://www.ifiaudio.com/d3.html