Home Source Components

A couple of highly respected members here have reccomended the DEQ2496 as a DAC. I am very interested and would like to hear some other opinions on this cool piece of equipment. I also do some home recording and can see where some of its feautures would help me there. My main concern is how it would sound as a DAC. I understand that being pro-audio gear vs. audiophile gear that it will probably be a little more cold and anylitical. But paired with my Bijou amp which is very warm and lush, though it might make a good combo. Anybody have some comments or reccomondations. I am looking for a desktop DAC. It does not need to be portable in any way. I would like …

Folks, just got an O2 and when paired to kgss and neko d100 i ended up with a sound sig darker than well for lack of a better word, dark..... After switching around with sources i have, i settled with stello da100. Its much better and suit my taste more or less. I also liked dacmagic my friend had. Are there any alternatives dac that would complement this rig well? Say price ranges between 1-2k ? And those that supposedly bettered than stello? Any advice as always is much appreciated

I've had my CDP-2 for a year and a half now, and I really like it. It's the best source I've ever owned. It doesn't have all of the slam that the four DAC chips inside my Adcom GCD-750 produce, but it's much more nimble sounding. Oddly enough, it has great synergy with my 12L Actives. It's not a fair fight, but I prefer the sound of my CDP-2 to my humble Pico DAC (which is great for what it is.) In fact, I like it better than any of the other DACs in my house. The CDP-2 goes for $1200-ish new, AFAIK. What I'd like hear about is any DACs in the price range that best it. I read in another thread on here that the $1500 price bracket for DACs is a crowded one. A num…

Just got the June 2010 issue of Stereophile today and a review of this DAC was in there. Every important input (coaxial, optical, AES/EBU, USB), USB upsampled to 24/192, and it has both RCA and XLR balanced outputs - for $879! And it's also a headphone amp. I think I might have to try one. The review says the DAC chip is the PCM1796. Here's a pic (it's the one on the top):

I ordered one of these DACses and will post impressions, pics, and random musings here.

Im looking for a new dac and I stumble across an Adcom GDA700. Has anyone tried this one compared to gamma 2. It seems the Adcom is a good choice, but im not very technical so I have not been able to compare them based on the specs.

Has anyone heard the Esoteric D70? I'm thinking of buying one used for ~$1500. It seems like a nice deal to me, but I've heard that it is on the cold/analytical side. I'm a little worried that it might sound too cold/analytical/sterile with my Headamp KGSS and SR-007. Also, it seems that Esoteric isn't very well-liked here. What is the reason for this? Any information on this unit would be greatly appreciated.

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.

Turns out some of you are pretty obsessive about DACs. Fortunately, there's a lot of knowledge here about these silly machines, so I figured a thread dedicated to general DAC technology and questions could be useful. I envision questions/discussions about various chipses that our preciousss DACses use, ciruit design, implementation, etc. Here are some that I have to get started: 1) What is meant by a "true" or "fully" balanced DAC, and what would be some of the sonic advantages? 2) What are some of the iconic (canonical?) DAC chipses? And what are their characteristics? 3) What is your favored topology and why? 4) What's with this whole I/V thing…

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

hi, any good recommendations for a good amp or tube amp with sub outs and hopefully a good headphone output as well? good synergy with vinyl? thanks

When I try to reproduce 24 bits 96Mhz files the sound just goes on and off and when I check the DacMagic the 96 Mhz mark Led is blinking, which normally stays fixed indicating the frequency is reproducing. This makes me wonder if the Dacmagic really supports this kind of files or its my computer.. I limited on the computer the frequency to 48mhz and plays just fine... Any guesses

First Listen: Wadia 151 PowerDAC mini | AVguide Seems to make quite a lot of sense for desktop/second systems.

Possibly. Stereophile: Channel D Pure Vinyl

I would like to use the Pico amp/dac as a DAC, connected to my powered computer speakers. I tried measuring output voltage by connecting one of my multimeter (set to AC voltage) to the 1/8" output and the other to ground (while playing 60Hz tone through the computer but having no headphones/speakers plugged in). I was getting readings that were really low when the volume was low and it got about to 2V on high gain about 3 o'clock. Does this seem correct (who knows if I was doing it right)? I decided to trying using it as a DAC with the volume at 12 o'clock and and the gain on high. There seems to be enough volume for listening at my desk. Is there a correct setting…

I am looking for measurements of the voltage out level of various sources, commercial and otherwise. Nominally, sources are "line level", but this turns out to be a term without a lot of real adherence. Consumer gear is said to be at -10dBV, which equates with ~0.316V RMS, but most sources seem to run hotter than that. Pro gear has a US standard (+4dBu or ~1.228V RMS which is 1.78dBV) and a German one (+6dBu, 1.55V RMS or 3.78dBV). Notice that V RMS, dBV, dBu, and dB are all different things -- you can convert between some of them at dB dBu dBFS dBV to volts conversion - calculator volt volts to dBu and dBV dB mW - convert dB volt convertor converter calculation onli…

Just wanted to see what people think is good in this price range. I am thinking about the DA100 as it will accept new sources in the future.

Cartridge reco's for Technics owners typically fall into the Denon MC camp for compliance matching, and classic sonics. However, the Ortofon Concorde integrated shell/cartridge presents some interesting potential usability/setup benefits. Anyone have any experience with KAB's custom hi-fi version: Thoughts on the general subject? Thoughts on which stylus is best (STY20/30/40)?

I bought and returned a Yamaha S1800 universal player (that apparently does pure DSD) because it was a joke. The regular CD layers sent from my Mac over optical to my Monarchy 18B beat it in every way--I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Is there any SA-CD player under $1000 (used or new) that can do things with SA-CD (greater detail, more realism, bigger soundstage) that the aging Monarchy 18B can't do with CD? I'd really appreciate your recommendations. I'm quite pleased with the front end of my system--Gilmore Lite and the 650s.

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

John Westlake (formerly of Cambridge and Pink Triangle IIRC, though I am not sure of all of his history) posted a link to a DAC that he designed recently using the ESS Sabre DAC as the basis: Signal Path International - Era Speakers & Peachtree Audio - Introducing Nova Reference thread on diyaudio: diyAudio Forums - Da-capo issue (John W?) - Page 16 Might be a good option for those interested in the Sabre but not up to building your own. EDIT: John Westlake seems to know his shit from all I have seen from him on a couple of forums so I would think anything he is involved in would be worth a listen. I have not heard this DAC (and wouldn't be the one to judg…

I own an NM24 DAC by Monarchy Audio. This unit sports a tube dac, an ss dac, and a tube line stage and has been my main dac for about 19 months. So far I have been very satisfied and recently I was thinking of a way to further improve its performance. Thus I thought of getting the Monarchy DIP/Upsampler. The DIP/Upsampler Combo sells for $399 and its specs are ... Decodes 16 to 24 Bits Inputs: Opto, Coax, AES/EBU Balanced Outputs: Coax, AES/EBU Balanced Upsamples from 44.1 to 48 or 96 Khz (user selectable) Outputs 24 Bits Has anyone here used one? Thanks.

So pretty soon I'll have an ECD-1 in the house, which means I'll be able to compare it to the North Star m192 mk2. I've heard such great things about the ECD-1 that I just impulsively pulled the trigger when I saw it on the 'gon. But I also have grown very fond of the North Star. It will be fun to compare. I'll save this space for my impressions...

Computer audio novice trying to figure out whether an interim set up would work: If I get a MacMini could I use the USB connection on an Oppo BDP-83SE as an external DAC? OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Player If not, is there another way to use the player as a DAC for computer based audio until I move to an external DAC?

Hi folks, some of my local head caser point me to this site [url=http://cplay.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php]cMP