A good DAC for under $500

This is not a function of the UD-H01. Just tried it on mine.

 

How's the Peachtree DACit vs the Schiit Bifrost?

 

Seconded. Great unit!

 

I hated it, soft and smooth. I'd go ifi Micro.

 

I love it. Not soft and smooth, more like revealing and realistic. Especially at it's street price point, a hard DAC to beat in the under $500 point.

 

Whatever. I used it for a few months and it was excellent, versatile and a useful stop gap. Soft and smooth it wasn't but then I put greater store in the speakers and amp to a lesser degree impacting the sound you hear. No idea what you're listening on so I can't comment. Worked a treat in mine.

Their new line is even more appealing however with two very fine DACs both offering DSD for £600 or under.

 

I bought the Cambridge DACMagic and like it, but had the DACit price drop occurred I would have grabbed one and still might. Should be the same DAC as my Decco65 which I loved, and had a remote.

 

I sure wouldn't descrube the sound of my Teac (headphone amp section) as soft or smooth. Very detailed, spacious, cool without being cold, sometimes a bit bright (although that seems to be decreasing).

 

Just got the Musical Fidelity V90 Dac, $300 bucks. Right out of the box it sounds pretty darn
good. I’m using it with a Mac Mini and standard iTunes connected with a USB cable. The unit
sounds clear and crisp right now but we will see after break in. It’s a nice compact unit and
connected with no problem..

 

I have a Schiit Gungnir and I've had a Peachtree DAC-it X (192 kHz over USB) for a few days now. The Peachtree is the first ESS Sabre-based DAC I've ever listened to for an extended period of time. For the money ($300), the Peachtree is a good value IMHO. The sound is quite good. I think it stands up to the Gungnir quite well.

 

California Audio Labs Sigma II. I have one and have directly compared it to a few $1000+ dacs and it sounds better. I also have the TEAC UD-501 which doesn't sound quite as good as the CAL but I needed DSD support. If all you intend to play is Redbook CD then the CAL is great buy. They did have an upgrade to 24/96, but some say it does not sound as good as the original. I can't comment on that as mine is not upgraded. You should be able to pick them up for under $500.

 

I had a DACiT - brought it home, listened for a couple weeks and returned it. I bought a Bifrost with both available upgrades and in my opinion the Schitt blew away the Peachtree. Move detail, more air, more musical. I primarily listen to WAV rips of CDs. I use Foobar on an old Toshiba Lap Top running Windows XP (wiped clean and never connected to the internet), run the USB out into the Bifrost. I'm happy.

 

Both the DACITx and the DACMagic are at the same price ($299) whereas the Bifrost (Uber + USB upgrades) is at $529. I'm curious if the better sound from the Bifrost described in a number of threads justify the price difference.

 

I can't speak for the DACMagic but I can tell you the Bifrost is worth the premium over the DACiT - Bifrost is Stereophile rated "near Class B"

 

My very positive impressions of the iFi iDSD Micro at $500 remain. That should be on any short list for DACs under $2K.

 

Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100. Around 350.00

 

The Arcam rDAC (now discontinued but available new for under $500 still) changed my life. Never been happier with a hi-fi purchase.

 

I just picked up a new Emotiva XDA-2 for $219. I works well and has a headphone amp. Only neg. comment is the thing is pretty big.

 

You can get the IrDac for around 650 which is a bit higher than your budget but well well worth it.

 

Nice!, and my Emotiva DC-1 is to small , I use it as a dac/pre, looks kinda funny next to my standard components, 219 is a great price, I was looking at the XDA-2 but I needed analog out

 

Are you interested in DSD playback as well as PCM? Do you need USB connectivity options. Lastly, are you buying from an objective or subjective perspective?

These are just some of the questions you need to answer to get a better grip on your choice(s).

Fortunately, in the case of the first two questions, there are becoming more and more USB and DSD options in the price point that you are considering.

If you are the objective type, rejoice in the fact that it is very difficult not to get an objectively perfect performing DAC these days. Perfect being a DAC that recovers 100% of the data inputted to it and rejects associated noise and jitter distortions ….. down to inaudible levels.

If you are the subjective type, I would go about listening to as many DAC's as you can in an attempt to find one that you like the sound of.

In either case, your choices are plenty.

 

Again the ifi micro idsd under 500 and can handle everything you throw at it and future proof when the music download catches up!

I ordered it and intend to pair with the HQPLAYER to upconvert to DSD256! It's also NOS DAC as well so up converting to 384kHz and greater will make you red book files sing!

The idsd can power speakers or the most power hungry headphones. Probably the most versatile product to hit the hi if community in years not to mention very affordable.

 

Please let's not turn this thread into a head-fi style hype machine. It would be nice if people would recommend only products they own and have personally tested - not sure of the utility of recommending a product because it's last Flavour of the Month (FOTM) and it does ultra-hyper-ABCD with GHIJK on 23434mHz files.

OP, you don't specify what kind of inputs and outputs you require, or perhaps I've missed this. Would USB input suffice? Would RCA outputs suffice? If so, and you need purely a DAC (not an amplifier) I can warmly recommend a HRT Music Streamer II+. Well within your price bracket, measures extremely well. I've owned one to send my FLAC files encoded with EAC from Foobar2000 towards a Densen Power amp. It has been flawless.

 

I love these post & bail threads

 

What's the difference between the iFi Micro and the Micro iDSD?