A friend of mine has an ackDac whose battery just died, and he's wondering if it's worth it to replace the $75 battery (if he even can?) or if there's a good current DAC for around $200 that he should just upgrade to.  I'm long since out of the market for DACs in that price range -- anyone know?

 

Doesn't even need USB, just RCA.

I still have a dAck (2.0) and I like the sound as I do for the ''older'' generation sound (my California Audio Lab is still going surprisingly strong).

 

Not sure if the new 200$ dacs (and less) are a good option because there's a real possibility that the 125$ investment over the simple battery replacement will not provide a superior sound against his ''vintage'' dAck.

 

Amicalement 

You can probably figure out a replacement battery without tooo much work. 

 

No idea what it *needs* but are there any markings on the battery? Google that. 

 

If you can figure out what voltage the battery was, and dont mind having something kind of ugly, it should not be too hard to find a not-quite-drop-in replacement that works perfectly. 

Any answers to this thread? I  too have a first generation Dack but no batteries. It has 4 wires from the batteries to the switch so not sure what was in the battery pack. 2 6v or 2  12 volt . When the charger is switched into the circuit the positve 12 volt goes straight to the 2 reds and the 0 volt to the 2 blacks . If it was 2 6volt they'd have to be in series so how come 4 wires to the switch unless the two blacks go to the remaining black terminal and the 2 reds to the remaining +ve terminal. Very confusing unless Dack couldn't source a single battery small enough to fit? Thnx in adance, Mike  Not sure but from a more detailed analysis of the wiring it appears the board requires 24 V . In the charge position the 2 reds and the 2 blacks have the 12 v applied to them to the 2 separate batteries which must be 12v each. When in the run position the batteries are put in series to the board with the floating ground to the board connected to the red of one battery and the 'ground' of the other. Maybe someone can confirm this before I proceed. Tnx .