Cheap Ch1nese DAC

[SEAWOLF97]

I got an Adcom DAC last year, my first exposure to outboards ...it was a 1996 vintage , large but very smooth .. now getting a little long in the tooth, but enjoyable.

Have a bud on the forum (knew him long before discovering LHF) , who is very audio knowledgeable. So I talked to him a couple of months back and he was babbling on and on abt a new DAC he's bought ...a cheap, Chinese DAC called a "Mini Muse" ...its 24bit/192 khz with inputs for optical, coax and USB . Even has headphone outputs.

He had bought his for $100 + shipping and was bowled over that now they were $50, including shipping. Well, Dan has never misguided me so I took a gamble. sold the Adcom for $175 and ordered up a Mini Muse ...sure its not a Bryston or Bel Canto etc, but looked like fun

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MUSE-Mini-24...item3378feef08

I figured that I'd get a cheap Chinese DAC that might have some potential ...had always heard that USB to a DAC did not produce good result.

Well it came yesterday and I installed it today ...Windows 7 saw it, installed drivers and we were off to the races ...WOW , sure there are much better out there, but this is a huge "Bang for the Buck" . USB produced sparkling highs (had to reduce treb on the preamp by 1 click) and very solid mids and bass ... I was understanding lyrics that had been missed before ...can't wait to try it on better source than the MP3's that were handy. May end up ordering a second one for the desktop PC.

Build quality seems VG , shipping from China was abt 2 weeks , setup was abt 3 minutes and my smile has been going on abt 2 hours now ...

[JeffW]

I bought a Topping TP30 that's a DAC and a T amp all in one, it's just 16/48 USB but sounds better than the sound card in the old PC. They make a TP31 now that's 24/96, but I'm plenty happy with my cheap DAC/amp. I'm running it off USB and have the digital out of the motherboard going to the main stereo DAC if I want to play tunes off the PC.

[BMWCCA]

Thanks for the heads-up.

This one, while not as cheap, has been getting plenty of good reviews recently:

http://www.audioquest.com/usb_digita.../dragonfly-dac

[Mr. Widget]

Yes, there do seem to be plenty of inexpensive options out there... no doubt many are an upgrade over what was available just a few years ago.


Widget

[4313B]

Yes, there do seem to be plenty of inexpensive options out there... no doubt many are an upgrade over what was available just a few years ago.

I guess it all depends on which target market you want to go after, the one percent or the ninety-nine percent.

[SEAWOLF97]

Thanks for the heads-up.

This one, while not as cheap, has been getting plenty of good reviews recently:

I skimmed the nfo , that's a rather different product ... the MM accepts USB AND Coax AND Toslink AND Mic , if you use USB input, it can then output spdif. Also has headphone o/p, besides 2 rca's.

Mine is in the 250Ti system , fed by a Vaio laptop, running to the BGW preamp. Have only hooked up USB , since I have to move the whole rack out to get to the rear, and was blocking traffic when installing. When the OL is out shopping next, will also run the Toslink from ES-CD player and coax from MD deck ...looks like it auto selects. Funny, the power cube supplied is Linksys/Cisco tagged. (not surprising since that seller also sells lots of electronic components)

I guess it all depends on which target market you want to go after, the one percent or the ninety-nine percent.

I read the short bio on James B. and it didn't seem like he was one one the 1%'ers either.

[BMWCCA]

I skimmed the nfo , thats a rather different product ... the MM accepts USB AND Coax AND Toslink AND Mic , if you use USB input, it can then output spdif. Also has headphone o/p, besides 2 rca's.

Yeah, I like the versatility. I only mentioned the Dragonfly to show that the cheap DACs are getting some credibility from critics. In fact I thought this one might offer enough to tie a few loose ends together in my living room TV/BlueRay/CD system . . . so I ordered one. Thanks again for the recommendation.

[4313B]

I read the short bio on James B. and it didn't seem like he was one one the 1%'ers either. In fact AFAIR, he committed suicide to collect the insurance money to pay off company liabilities ?

I'm not sure what that has to do with my comment.

My feeling is that none of this digital gear should be real expensive.

[Mr. Widget]

My feeling is that none of this digital gear should be real expensive.

Well... yes and no.

The DAC chip sets should be and are relatively affordable, some are obviously down right cheap, but any DAC has an analog component to it. Unfortunately good to great analog is not cheap.


Widget

[SEAWOLF97]

I'm not sure what that has to do with my comment.

My feeling is that none of this digital gear should be real expensive.

yeah, you are probably right. I revised it.

Once digi gear goes through R & D , add in fab costs and a reasonable profit, then you churn them
out by the container ship loads , the prices should be more moderate. (ignoring greed)

I keep thinking back to the Oppo that got rebadged as a Lexicon (with different cosmetics
and minor internal mods) and then the price went up .. what ? 300 percent ?