DACs

As I mentioned in my post you just quoted, your interest in DACs is also extremely limited. It's all good, though, just trying to open some eyes to the much more enjoyable sound possible spending a little more money. Everyone's priorities are different; best sound achievable has been one of mine for 50+ years

 

It does quite seem that you don't get it...

If you want to discuss $10k+ DACS, start a thread because that's not this thread.

 

OP, the Border Patrol and the MHDT Orchid seem to be popular dac choices these days for those is search of a nice, smooth and near analog type experience in your implied pricerange. On another note, did you inadvertently kick RBBERT's puppy? Best of luck.

 

No DAC in the 701, I believe. The 801 native DAC is solid--airy, linear, neutral--but an external one will be far more interesting, IMHO.

 

I started the thread, so I know what it's about. It's about DACs, irrespective of price. And it definitely isn't about amps.

 

I was replying to rbbert, who seems intent on derailing this very informative thread.

 

I've said at least twice that I love the sound I get. That isn't because I'm ignorant. It's because I tried a lot of components and decided this is what works for me. Why do you have to be the guy who (a) criticizes other people's gear, (b) ignores the actual question, and (c) insists that he knows better than the other person what sounds good? How does that help anyone?

 

My bad, dude. I thought rbbert posted that comment. Too much coffee.

 

The 701 also has a built in dac (a PCM5102A) with optical and coax sockets on the back panel but not usb which the 801 is able to accept.

 

Oh, gotcha. For some reason I thought there was no DAC at all. Thanks for clarifying.

 

Schiit is doing an upgrade of sorts for the Yggdrasil. Informally announced (let the cat out of the bag) yesterday on their live stream Q&A that they do. Jump to the 19:00 mark in this YouTube video to get the info. Turn on YouTube closed captioning and open the transcript. Basically two new board options and chip options for the Yggdrasil. Multibit chips from TI instead of Analog Devices. Still keeping the Analog Devices chip version of the Yggdrasil. So now it looks like there will be three versions of the Yggdrasil with the TI versions being lower cost. Don't know what that means for Gungnir or what of that TI tech will trickle-down. Interesting info, but also not affecting my purchase yesterday of the Bifrost 2.



I would also expect new versions of Yggdrasil and Gungnir to adapt eventually to have the MicroSD slot for firmware upgrades that the Bifrost 2 has. Also expect the DACs to eventually move to using FPGA instead of DSP to implement the filter and digital stuff. Mike mentioned that in the June 9th Q&A at 24:00. FPGA is becoming the accepted way to do that stuff now and dedicated DSP processing is out of favor for that. Mike said they're looking at following that trend to using FPGA for that. Don't know if moving to FPGA will mean they can do some new things and new processing in the DAC? Maybe? I don't expect them to do something radical like support DSD.

 

I’m looking at DACs and am noticing most don’t have a 110 vac cord port. How are they powered?

 

Which DAC as an example? Some DACs now are powered by the USB cable or a USB phone charger.

 

There's comparisons on youtube. Passion for Sound and Cheapaudioman are 2 I can think of.

 

Project Pre Box S2 is like that. It actually doesn't even have a power button.

 

Are they actual sound demos? I found a comparison done by cheap audio man, who is fun to listen to, but I'd rather hear for myself.

 

I’ve been looking at under $500. The Cambridge Dac Magic Plus, for example, doesn’t have a 110 port. It’s got a +12 v DC 2 amp pin port. I guess they come with an old school pin style power converter cord?

edit: it has a warning to use supplied PSU only… so I’m guessing it comes with a 110 vac to 12 vdc cord.

The Topping D50s says it includes a 5 v DC 1 amp cord…. so they come with the cord. Whew… I freaked out a bit because I ordered an Audiolab 6000CDT last night and was researching DAC’s and was like “how do you plug them in ??!!!”. All is well.

 

The title of this thread is "DACs". draw your own conclusions. A thread actually about DACs would be interesting, but despite the title it is apparently not this one. bye

 

I haven't seen any sound demos of any dacs.

As well as serious level matching, it would need to be recorded through a very good ADC to make it valid.

Also, relying on youtube for the often subtle differences in dacs might be optimistic.

 

Agree, but I think it's useful for broad stroke comparisons when the differences are sufficiently pronounced.

 

It was about DACs until you posted a list of...amps.

 

A lot of the smaller DACs use wall wart power plugs. Some are AC some are DC of different voltages. All with a similar size barrel connector.

Get some cable management tags that have a place to write down what the barrel connector plugs in to. It's the only way to keep your sanity when trying to figure out the cables behind the audio rack.

 

But that's my point, it's rare that 'the differences are sufficiently pronounced' with dacs unless your comparing a cheap phone with the BF2 or Ares.
The differences between those 2 dacs will be more subtle and probably reveal themselves over time and with a variety of different music.

 

This has been a helpful thread and it’s come along at the right time. My Rotel RCD-1520 is giving me fits and I need to replace it. The thought of buying another dedicated CD player didn’t appeal to me. At this time, I’m on a budget. Researching transports and DACs is fun as well as enticing my interest of how my cds might sound different. Will I upgrade later? Maybe. Right now the newness of it all (to me) is exciting.