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Best budget DAC

Hi all,

I'm considering a DAC for my system and I have to keep the expenditure very reasonable (under $300).

DACS considered: Audioengine D1, Audioquest Dragonfly, Cambridge Audio DACMagic XS & Azur DacMagic 100, Musical Fidelity - V90-DAC,  Schiit Modi,

Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated, especially if you have actually heard or compared the DACs above, or others.

Also, if I do get a DAC, is there any advantage to ripping a CD and then playing the FLAC/WAV file through the DAC? Keep in mind that the DAC chip in my CD Player is listed as a "24/192 Cirrus Logic Delta/Sigma", but no specific chip number.

I haven't seen any comparisons of CD's to ripping and playing the file through an outboard DAC, so if you have seen such a comparison, your link to it would be greatly appreciated.

These are the components in my system:
Speakers - Elac B6
Subwoofer - Elac S10
CD Player - NAD C 516BEE CD Player
Preamplifier - Parasound Halo P5
Power Amplifier - Rotel RB-1080

 Thanks. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

128x128edincleve
adam18
670 posts
 
I agree with arafiq.  The DAC built into the Parasound P5 seems pretty impressive, and I don't understand why the OP would want an outboard DAC for $ 300.  You'd probably need to spend a significantly higher sum than $ 300 (plus the expense of another IC cable) to improve on what's already in the P5.

From the Parasound website description of the P5 ..... 
"Burr-Brown PCM1798 DAC with USB, Optical and Coax inputs
Coax and optical accept all sampling rates up to 192 kHz, 24-bit
USB accepts up to 96 kHz, 24-bit
Incoming jitter on all three digital inputs is significally attenuated with an effective clock recovery system"
freediver
1,165 posts
 
All out assault:SMSL "M8"DSD/DXD $250.00.DSD/DXD 32/384 off USB.
 Budget DAC:HiFiMeDIY "SABRE DAC2" UNDER $100.00.24/96 off USB...
coli
291 posts
 
Emotiva XDA-2 fit’s your budget $200ish and is very good.

With that said, I highly highly recommend the DC-1 at $400ish. That is not a budget DAC, it’s a top of the line DAC + great reclocker + top of the line preamp + headphone amp (never used it though). The bang for the buck is out of this world.
jeenam
131 posts
 
A few people mentioned the ZDAC and I disagree with that recommendation. I picked one up for $300 a while back and sold it after a few months. It was replaced by an Arcam irDAC which I purchased off Ebay for $409 (there was a seller in Italy who sold a bunch of them at that price). The irDAC smokes the ZDAC and there's no comparison. If you're looking for something you will simply enjoy listening to, consider a MHDT Paradisea+.

I found the ZDAC to be too bright on the high end.
mediumrare
2 posts
 
I recently bought the V90-DAC and run FLAC files from a NAS drive via both Mac and PC. I also run a digital out from an excellent Sony CD player into the DAC. McIntosh and B&W Nautilus to give an idea of the quality of the sound. I did some blind A/B testing before deciding to keep the DAC. Conclusions: DAC sounds great. Brought extra airiness to the highs and substantially improved the depth and warmth of the bass - that's probably the biggest gain. Both from the computers and the CD player (you can run both line and digital out from your CD player and A/B test easily.) Buy from a reliable place that allows returns and try it out. I also blind A/B tested a high-end USB cable and sent it back - no difference. Regarding ripping CDs, use EAC or XLD and get bit-perfect FLAC copies. They should sound same or maybe better than live CD playback because of no read errors & reduced jitter, plus gives the infinite advantage of a digital library/player setup.
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