Smeggy Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 used prices seem to float around very expensive rather than extremely expensive.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelvinz Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 So where can I buy a completed Opus DAC w/USB that is not "extremely" or "very" expensive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelvinz Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 hmmm what is this buffalo DAC... searching... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeggy Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 hmmm what is this buffalo DAC... searching... hehe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelvinz Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 hehe... not much info on HC.... Know a good builder for the buffalo or opus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeggy Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 not much info on HC.... Know a good builder for the buffalo or opus? There is a bit of info on the Buffalo, and from what I've read it's all good! Keep your fingers crossed and you may be contacted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelvinz Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 There is a bit of info on the Buffalo, and from what I've read it's all good! Keep your fingers crossed and you may be contacted... sounds good to me off to do more reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penger Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 If you want the buffalo, you can always camp thrice's rockhopper audio website for when one will be for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelvinz Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 so if I use my sound cards S/PDIF out to a external DAC's S/PDIF in, will the data be DAC'd twice? Once by the sound card and then once again by the external DAC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beefy Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 so if I use my sound cards S/PDIF out to a external DAC's S/PDIF in, will the data be DAC'd twice? Once by the sound card and then once again by the external DAC? No. It is still digital, so no DACing. But that isn't to say that the sound card isn't playing around with the digital signal before it sends it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 It depends on the driver -- if it goes through the kmixer, my understanding is yes, it does. Someone feel free to correct me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherwood Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 I guess it could be DAC'd, ADC'd, then DAC'd again in the above circumstance. It seems illogical for windows to convert the signal to analog for processing, however, as it would just eat up cycles for no reason. My understanding was that kmixer processed the signal in the digital domain. Best to skip it altogether, if possible. ASIO straight to the soundcard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Currawong Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 I'm going to hijack this thread as well After having a listen with a rare insanely expensive Nakamichi Dragon DAC, I decided to get this when it becomes available, as it uses 8x the same DA converter the Nakamichi uses 4x of, and, not to mention, I already own gear from the same company, so have some confidence. The Nakamichi was the first DAC I tried that actually renders a piano like a piano sounds, with even my Northstar sounding a bit digital. Frankly, the Nakamichi made my Northstar and a friend's DAC1 sound like shit in comparison (yay for vintage gear). It should be especially interesting as the DSP in it has dip switches that allow the oversampling rate to be changed and the filters switched off or partially off, turning it into a NOS DAC, which should be very interesting. I shall then only require someone to leave me an O2 rig in their will and die soon so I can live the rest of my days in audio nirvana -- as long it renders damn pianos correctly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 It's rarely the chip that's to blame for or gets credit for how a dac ends up sounding. A well designed analog stage is significantly more important. Hopefully that chinese dac will live up to your standards. So far, audiogd seems to be awfully shilly in their "grass roots" advertising, so I'm wary of their products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Currawong Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 It's rarely the chip that's to blame for or gets credit for how a dac ends up sounding. A well designed analog stage is significantly more important. Hopefully that chinese dac will live up to your standards. So far, audiogd seems to be awfully shilly in their "grass roots" advertising, so I'm wary of their products. This is what I feared though, that any enthusiasm shown would be seen as shilling, something which I'm totally against. Of course, the owner of Audio-gd gave away development models of his gear as much for promotion as testing, which makes for instant fanboy creation, resulting in behaviour by a couple of people which I reckon is embarassing. For the record, I am not now nor ever going to shill for anyone -- I call things as I see them and do my best to be clear about what I know and don't know. I started out a year ago on HF with an interested in dropping a couple of large ones on a rig that would satisfy me with headphones for a fraction of the price that I'd need for a speaker rig. It seems that there are more straight-talking and experienced people on HC than HF, not to mention less bullshit (though quite a serious case of old boys' club syndrome) so I hope that, just as I've learned a lot in the past year, I can learn some more here too and build a damn good rig. Now, back to DACs: I figured as many of you guys (and the couple of girls) know WTF you are talking about, you'd find my comments (and the DAC) interesting and, as well, might make some useful comments on what you see. I wasn't considering the Ref 1 at all until I had wiped the drool off my chin after listening with the Nakamichi, and paused my search of Yahoo Auctions for one to actually hunt down the schematic. Extrapolating my experiences of the last year with all that I've read and comments I've received from helpful people around (such as HeadphoneAddict, who's comments have always been spot-on), I've decided to take a chance with this. I understand that DACs aren't all about the chip only. My sin here was posting with the assumption that if you're dropping $1k+ on a DAC that the analogue stage isn't rubbish. What is interesting for me is, many years ago, when the big multi-bit vs. 1-bit debates were raging, I thought that multi-bit CD players sounded better. Now, in the gear I've heard, the DA chips were all 1-bit (don't know about my Northstar, I should check) and the Nakamichi uses a multi-bit DA). It's as if nothing has changed since all those years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Well, it's not like the output stages of those DAC's don't look the part. I say dew et. And then report back on your findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarium Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Yeah.. most 1k dacs these days have crap output stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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