Emotiva Big Ego question

[blackraven]

Has any one here heard the Emotiva Big Ego DAC?

I am thinking about buying one for my son for his birthday to replace his Dragon Fly 1.0 DAC. He will be using it mostly in his 2ch rig (Parasound A21, PASS LABS DIY B-1 preamp, PSB B6 speakers) as opposed to headphones. By the way, the Dragon Fly with the AQ Jitterbug sounds remarkably very good.The reviews are positive and one guy on HeadFi compared it favorably to his Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC.

Here is his review-

"Emotiva Big Ego OR Schiit Bifrost Multibit -> Project Ember II OR iFi iCAN Micro -> JVC HP-DX1000 OR Aurisonics Kicker
Indistinguishable on almost all recordings. I used an RCA switcher to swap back and forth instantly for listening tests. I can distinguish more of a difference between the filter modes on Emotiva Big Ego than between the Emotiva Big Ego (in position 1) and Bifrost Multibit.

It's important to note that this gear is not as resolving as it could be, so I also tested...

Emotiva Big Ego OR Schiit Bifrost Multibit OR Audio-GD Reference 5 -> Audio-GD Roc -> Sennheiser HD650
This setup is great for testing because the Roc has a bunch of inputs and you can just turn the knob between them.

It's also the only setup I have that I can distinguish between the various DACs. Of the 3, I prefer the Reference 5 slightly. It's the warmest and most liquid of the three.

The Schiit Bifrost Multibit is slightly behind the Reference 5, and the Emotiva Big Ego is slightly behind that.

That said, on some recordings I slightly prefer the Big Ego to the Bimby. The Bimby is slightly more organic and detailed than the Big Ego with this setup, but the Big Ego keeps up and occasionally exceeds the Bimby to my ears.

Emotiva Big Ego vs. AudioQuest Dragonfly 1.2 -> Anything or Nothing
Emotiva hands down. Much more pleasant to listen to than the AudioQuest.

Summary
The fact that it even comes close to the Schiit Bifrost Multibit is astonishing for the price. Combined with its compact size, filter options, and the ability to play up to 384kHz, the Big Ego is absurd. Emotiva deserves a hit with the Big Ego.

Unless you have extremely resolving gear after the Big Ego, it's virtually indistinguishable from the Schiit.

They're also having a sitewide sale right now so you can get it for $179, so I'd jump on it if you have the chance."

[bfalls]

I went to the site, but didn't see a sale and the Big Ego is still at $219. Did I miss something?

[blackraven]

I went to the site, but didn't see a sale and the Big Ego is still at $219. Did I miss something?

Nope, that review was an old review and that was a sale price. I am going to see if there is a Memorial day sale. Otherwise I will buy it for the $219. It should be a nice step up from the Dragon Fly for my son.

It is pretty remarkable that these new DAC's in small packages can sound so good. It will be interesting to see if the AQ Jitterbug works with the Big Ego and improves the sound as much as it does for the Dragon Fly. If not, then I will eventually get him a Regen for another occasion.

I will post a review on the Big Ego in 3 weeks as his Bday is June 16th.

[harley .guy07]

I have been very impressed as well with some of these new Dacs that are coming out for phones and computers. I bought a little Fiio K1 for my Dell XPS 13 that I use all the time and listen to my headphones on to improve the sound since I have never heard a stock computer of any brand sound good out of the headphone output. This little $40 unit sounds great for the money. I have friends that have the Dragonfly and love it, I haven't personally talked to any of them on to if they have tried the jitterbug but I could see how it could work. Have you heard what PS Audio is doing now? They are working on a system of taking the USB signal out of the computer and putting it through a network switch and changing it to Ethernet cables and then putting it back to USB to go into the DAC. From what they are saying the process of the switch taking the digital 1's and 0's and putting them into packets for the Ethernet system takes all the noise and jitter out of the music signal. I haven't heard from anyone how well this works but they are saying that it is better than the Jitterbug and even the Regen. Sound interesting.

[Feanor]

If portability or compactness are important issues, it's good to realized that the are a variety of very competent compact devices out there nowadays.

But that tiny, USB-bus powered devices must have certain limitations. For one thing, the "full sized", self-powered DAC have the potential (at least) to have superior analog sections -- and no DAC is better than its analog section. Tiny, bus-powered devices must rely on op amps for their analog sections. Also, with tiny devices there is less scope for including higher-end USB asynchronous receivers or multiple DAC chips or such amenities as multiple DAC chips. And obviously the provision for multiple digital inputs isn't likely.

[blackraven]

Harely, the PSA Direct Stream DSD DAC is supposed to sound its best through Ethernet. Of course, it cost's another $800 for the Ethernet Network Card option. A friend of mine has this and it does sound better.

It looks like Emotiva is not going to run a Memorial day sale. Guess I will have to pay full price.