New to DAC, need advice.


I recently purchased a Parasound ZDAC here and it worked well for a short time but then started acting up with short, intermittent bursts of static while streaming Tidal. Then for a day wouldn't play certain parts of the music such as missing a guitar or piano notes. After contacting Parasound they tell me it's a circuit issue. It's out of warranty and they are offering to have me ship it there for repair. It's been error-free for a few days now and in the mean time it's been recommended to me by Jim Williams of Adcom modification fame that I should consider the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital DAC. It's roughly twice the price I paid for the ZDAC but if I send it in for repair, with shipping, I'll be right around the price of the Pro-ject DAC new, and it can decode MQA files where the ZDAC can't. So I defer to the community here. What's my best option on a limited budget?
ratboysr
Ratboysr- I am wondering about your setup. I think the Project Pre-box S2 will only input a digital audio MQA signal via usb. Optical or coax will not. I don’t know if you are using a computer with Tidal app via USB as a source, but that might be something to consider. Also it does not incorporate a digital out, which would not allow you to add a better DAC later, if you wanted to do that. But I like that Pro-Ject uses a dual-mono design. That is incredible at it’s price point. I am one here, among a few, that use a Bluesound Node 2 that I like very much. In my rig, it works very well.
ratboysr what you are hearing is your dac not being able to play hi rez files I had the same thing happen to me. Anything in Masters you should avoid or you will get static. If regular 16/44.1 recordings work there is nothing at all wrong with your DAC.
I think moving away from PC/USB source combo by itself will give you better sound quality and is the right way to go. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the sound quality and ease of use switching over to Node2.
@2psyop I'm streaming Tidal HiFi from my Windows 10 PC to the ZDac via USB then into a Micromega IA-100 integrated. So I'm ok with USB to the Pro-ject. I like the dual mono as well and it's certainly in my price range. I'm curious about your comment about digital out from the Pro-ject into another DAC. What is the benefit of using two DACS in series?