Topping D90 or SMSL m400?

Something else you might want to consider is the $99 Khadas Tone Board. I have one and love it, and it would suit your needs well - your Node would give it both power and signal. There's not a lot of moving parts so I doubt you'd get a dud.

 

Will investigate. Thanks!

 

I see that it is measured well and currently on sales. I just ordered one for ~$85.50. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

A great thing about the Khadas is you can get both power and signal from USB, so while you can experiment with using the coax out from the Bluesound and getting the power from a spare phone charger or something, you might get the best results using just a single USB cable to connect to the node for both signal and power. I don't think I've ever used mine with the coaxial input.

 

I am new to the world of DACs but have to wonder about whether the USB thing for both signal and power is actually a good thing. After pouring through the rather contentious recent thread on USB cables (the one about the $1000 Shunyata USB cable), one of my thoughts on why so many people (some of them quite reasonable FWIW ) hear differences between USB cables in what appear to be pretty resolving systems was that there could be some kind of negative interaction, mainly with respect to noise, between the signal and power legs in the USB cable. Or that the power leg in one USB cable might be inferior in some way to that in another USB cable.

Now if you don't believe in power cables or their ability to improve sound quality within a system that theory will not hold much water but there does seem to be a general consensus that many DACS (probably cheaper ones with cheaper power supplies) can be significantly improved by feeding them high(er) quality power. In the USB cable market, there do seem to be some cables trying to improve upon generic USB's by going with larger gauge wire for the power leg, even among relatively modestly priced USB cables-the Monoprice Monolith comes to mind.

I'm running a really cheap DAC right now (a Fiio D3 Taishan, cost me all of $20 or so LOL) really just for Netflix/TV and internet radio off the cable box and it is USB powered and the supplied charger that it comes with in basic form (mine didn't come with one at all) seems to be something that turned a lot of people off and negatively impacted performance. I experimented with a couple of different phone chargers with it before actually purchasing a relatively inexpensive Linear Power Supply (it cost about 3X more than the DAC lol!) as I read from some users that this really elevated the performance of even the little Fiio.

But it is still powered off the LPS using the USB cable. Frankly I think that any of the source material I'm feeding this DAC is probably not up to making any serious judgement on the sound quality of the USB cable and who in their right mind is going to spend a small fortune on a USB cable for a $20 DAC, or even a $150 DAC? There was without doubt, though, a huge sonic difference with a couple of different analog IC's running out of the Fiio, so it was plenty resolving enough to reveal those differences in my system.

I just ordered a Topping E30 to replace the Fiio; I'll run the Topping off the LPS as well using optical from my cable box to the Topping for Netflix, etc. while venturing into either Tidal or Amazon via the USB. But one of the things that I actually liked with the Topping is that the USB input is signal only. No power.

I'll start with a generic computer A to B USB for around $10 and then maybe try something in the $30-$60 range to see if there's any difference. Should be a bit easier to evaluate with Tidal/Amazon.

 

Thanks, I’ve been thinking about the same thing. My Project S2 Digital Prebox has a bad/loose AC input jack so I’ve just been running it USB for power and audio. Feels weird to me but I also don’t know anything about the engineering implications.

I can’t decide if it’s worth sending out to have fixed or just live with it as I have. Sounds great, but I do use it 40 hours a week so a couple bucks into fixing a (better?) power supply would be worth it to me.

edit: I have to say...at first I was particularly unimpressed by the headphone output on this unit but I don’t know if it’s break in or what....sounds pretty good now. I can flip back and forth between a Valhalla 2 and the Project and the difference is there but it’s not leagues worse.

 

Thanks for the USB suggestion. Unfortunately, the Node2i only will work with USB drive as input and it won't output signals via USB. I am thinking to use just a cell phone charger to power the Khadas as I want to connect a USB drive with WAV files to the Node2i.

 

Got the Khadas Tone Board a few days now.

I compared RCA out from Node2i directly to amps, RCA out from Oppo 203 directly to amps, vs Tone Board RCA out directly to amps. Music files are WAV from USB key. Everything else stay the same.

Both Node2i (files from USB key plugged directly to it) and Oppo 203 (files from USB key plugged directly to it) sounded a bit soft (not exactly sure what other words to use to describe the sounds) as compared to the Tone Board (same files output via Node2i coaxial out). Tone Board is a bit cleaner and seems a bit punchier.

I would rank them like this in term of preference:
#1 Tone Board
#2 Node2i
#3 Oppo 203

But, it doesn't necessarily means I am now enjoying music more. Certain notes that I could tolerate before with Node2i could sound overly sharp with Tone Board.....

Anyway, I like it. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

I apologize for off-topic but guys, maybe you can help, I am looking for a dac to play files from computer that will match

1) my system (here: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/members/dof.53153/#info) and

2) my musical preferences which are mainly heavy metal, like Iron Maiden, and blues rock, like Eric Clapton.

In ideal world this dac should be detailed, crisp, rich, full, not thin, harsh or sharp, rather balanced.

Budget: $100-150.

Remember my system, its limits, don't wanna buy some expensive dac, that will be cut by the lower quality of the system, so it must fit.

What I have here in Poland? Well some SMSL's, like Sanskrit 10th MKII, some Toppings... like Topping E30, Topping D30.

Will it run under Windows XP?

Some demos from youtube:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfvubyPAWwA

My only experience with external dac is Behringer UCA202 (USB DAC) that I use to play my files.