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Has anyone had any experience with these? https://www.vinshineaudio.com/denafrips

Yes another USB converter.... I have an easy one for you: do these USB converters are that truly different from each other? I mean are they realy on different levels if you compare the ones you can find used like the affordable RedWine Audio to the crazy expensive Empirical stuff? I like the Canto presentation but at $500 (US) this need to be good. Thanks in advance. Amicalement

I didn't see this posted anywhere already, but when I saw "balanced I/O" I immediately checked the price...bit steep though at around 600 Euro yet doesn't have Firewire. The VGA plug break-out cable will make DIY dead easy though, and it's not recessed like the Duet's. From: RME Delivers Babyface Audio Interface

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3121804&postcount=5 Cmon now. Granted I don't own an iPod, but why is this the current thought: that an iPod can be an absolute reference source. I'd like to think my $400 DAC sounds much better. What's the deal here? Do these fanboys really believe their iPod is this good?

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, as it's not a source component... but then again it doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'm sure you know Jan Meier and his work. He just released an interesting new product, which - if anything - is certainly innovative. An external DSP box for headphones and speakers, with digital ins and outs, and an analog section with headphone and line outputs. All controls happen with physical buttons but on the digital realm, with an EQ, crossfeed (as expected), and then a number of more unique features I haven't come across before. More details here. I've been following the development of it via his newsletter, it's …

I've often commented on how undervalued the Squeezebox 3/Classic is as a DAC. I've really thought, and still do, that it performs quite nicely for its price even if you forget it's streaming capabilities. Part of that conclusion though was based on DAC comparisons when fed through the SB3. In fact I sold my Lavry DA10, when after a comparison, I could no longer justify its cost. Before boxing for shipment though I decided to give it one last go fed optically from a MacBook, recreating what I lived with for a year - a DAC/amp single-box combo with balanced HD580s out the back. It sounded wonderful, but so many variables I didn't even think about the Squeezebox (after all b…

Well, I finally got my last piece of gear yesterday: the Phonomena II. I had it sent to my parents' house since I'm hardly ever home to receive stuff. I will pick it up today (ordered it along with new inner sleeves for LP's - no point washing if I put them back in the old ones). I will also compare it with the highly-regarded as bang-for-buck CA 640P (which I got a good deal on in Audiogon). The 640P wasn't a planned purchase, but I read it is a good piece of gear. We'll see how the Phonomena II (at $600 new) does against it. Not to mention there are two cartridges in the house now (used MC cartridge ZYX Bloom and new MM cartridge AT150mlx). I won't begin any test…

Folks, I now have 2 rigs (amp+usb dac) and I have been trying connecting these 2 rigs into my netbook as transport. My problem is that the netbook only recognize 1 usb port so I can't play the songs to two different rigs by hooking it to 2 different usb port. Can someone enlighten me on how to make both of the rigs playable from one netbook ? Thanks in advance.......

Have any of you Parasound DAC owners tried these ASE-Audiotuning "upgrades"? http://www.audiotuning.de/english/index.html?1-54-digital.html

If you had only 1 good, well made power cable (Better then the stock ones) would you use it on a DAC or Amp? Im thinking DAC, as my Amp (HR millett) is using the Astrodyne PS, which prob will not benefit from the cable. I dunno, im new to the whole AC power cable, so i bought a starter (Virtual Dynamic basic) for one of my devices, just dont know which.

So I was looking through Sound & Visions report on new products in NY show, came upon a turntable section. They had a picture of the new Pro-Ject Essential turntable, and I realized it's used to play those old 1970's albums backwards to get all the satanic messages. Little surprised no one has corrected that picture, it's been up for a while

I'm really enjoying the flexibility of this litte source, but it's led me to a decision on my computer setup. Right now, I have all my music on an external HD(2 actually) but it's time to bump up the space available as these are pretty much filled. So, is it better to continue with the external HD connected by USB2/Firewire or should I upgrade the aging HD on my server/desktop? I could bump up the HD on the desktop and keep the external HD's for backups. The desktop HD hasn't given a problem but it is an older drive which for my peace of mind could stand an upgrade. What's the thought? Btw, anyone got tips on a quick and painless way of cloning my existing HD onto the…

Friend is looking to setup a cheap audio/video system and looking to spend $600-750 on a receiver. Anyone have a suggestion in this price range? He's leaning towards a couple Denon and Yamaha models, neither of which he or I has any experience with. Any help would be much appreciated. Thought of the Outlaw RR2150, but he wants HDMI if possible.

So I was leant a Dac-Ah for no other reason than to get my opinion. There seems to be some sort of distortion on it (I'm listening to Camille's Le Fil, and it seems to show up on her voice and the bass, and any other prominent sounds like that) -- is this something that will go away with burn-in, or is there something wrong and needs to be fixed. I forget which exact version it is, but could find out if it's important...or is this something that needs to be diagnosed on a case-by-case basis?

Well, seems like I've been gone way too long, but I guess nobody missed me either here or on Headfi. Oh well. Anyway . . . looking for a cheap DAC/Headphone amp for my office. I've had plenty of nice ones that I liked (Bryston, Benchmark, etc.) but would like to get decent quality, and a built-in headphone amp. I know in the upper end, there are some good candidates -- Benchmark, Lavry, Grace, Mytek. But what about in the $500 range or below? I researched and researched, and came across the Teac UD-H01. So, at the risk of asking a stupid, headfi-like question, is this thing any good? I mean, I want cheap, but I don't want to crappy. All the buzzwords seem to …

any recommendations for low cost or free EQ software that handles an 80dB range with more than 10 adjustable frequencies ? for OS X 10.8 or Windows7 I was looking for a means to evaluate my comparative sensitivity to different frequencies across the audible spectrum, found this site and gave it a go. http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html the range indicated seems to be over 75 dB (image attached below) I use both a mac ( OSX 10.8 ) and a pc ( Windows7 ) I would like to experience whether EQ'ing my systems to meet my seeming audio sensitivity/insensitivity will be good or not. audio sources will be games, youtube, soundcloud and lik…

Hello Head-case, As you can see, I am new here but I have a question on a vintage DAC that will probably be better answered here than at the other place. I recently came across someone local selling a Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 DAC (MK1) locally for a decent price (around USD$900). This DAC is around 15 years old and got glowing reviews from Stereophile when it was released: Stereophile: Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 D/A processor I was thinking of buying it tomorrow evening but I was wondering if anyone here knows any reason NOT to get it? Can anyone guess how it will compare with modern DACs?

I know about the famous Philips transport and other stuff that this player offer, but is this the end? I mean, if we are talking about sound only, what would you do? What other choices up there, which are on the same level. Meaning that CD94mkII in very good condition only. THX8)

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-airist-audio-r-2r-dac/talk/2101227?utm_source=linkshare&referer=TYMJB2 On the left, sosolar's design since 2015, on the right "Massdrop Made" by Airist audio. That's a new low for Massdrop.

For anyone curious I just put an order in for the AudioByte Hydra Vox dac a Romanian manufacturered component and sister company of famed Rockna Audio . It’s a interesting dac , it’s configured to stack with separate power supplies, yes plural and soon to be released server named the Hub . The dac is FPGA based , pure one bit and no dac chip and much more including a superb purpose built headphone input. I believe M***.com is the US distributor and ***.com a dealer where I placed my order I’m sure there are other dealers however I found Vlad owner of *** out of Minnesota to be fabulous to deal with.

Anyone know if the TBAAM (Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro) optical out is bit perfect on Linux with ALSA? Is ALSA/Linux a bit-perfect system to use? (like Kernel Streaming on Windows) I know the TBAAM optical on Windows is resampled, but what about Linux?

Silly name, but it certainly looks the part and the price is nice. Who's first? Press fluff follows.

And I'm thinking about making an impulse purchase. I've been wanting to bring my computer/foobar/flac back into the audio family for a while now, and reading iron dreamer's and others' comments makes me think the signature of the aqvox might be too my liking (overall laid back, emphasis on the midrange, decent enough soundstage). Plus it has lots of options to tweak, which is fun, what with the oversampling, filters, and what have you. And I figure I could offload it without losing my shirt if I didn't like it. So should I do it? Is this a decent price? http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1189793122

I am looking for a good way to implement a music distribution system in a largish space. The space is ~10,000 sqft with several rooms and several levels. The space is a noisy workshop, so audiophile sound is not really a consideration. I would like to have multiple nodes that play music and that can be synchronized, or be used independently. The more wireless the system is, the better. I would like to accomplish two distinct things: - the first is to allow multiple users to play music from a central server to one or more nodes. - the second is to allow users to play music from a device (laptop/phone/etc) to send to the rest of the system. There is a large ser…

mercenary audio said they should have them in stock again next week or so. yay.