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Small form factor, budget DACs?

I'm trying to restore the musicality to my system, piece by piece. A few years ago my Jolida JD-602A CD player finally died and I've never really found a good replacement. I think really I've been mourning the loss and lacked the funds to get something of equal quality (since it was sort of a giant killer).

So, what can I get for < $400? Used is fine, but it has to be a compact form factor - I don't have room for another full-sized component. I think the 1/2 size form factor that Channel Islands, Musical Fidelity and Creek use is about as big as I could go.

24/96 is a plus since I have a bit of DVD-A stuff but not a necessity. I don't really have an opinion for or against oversampling, or regarding filterless DACs.

Here are the DACs that have popped up in my search so far:

$175 - Lite Audio filterless DAC
$250-400 - Ack! Dac
$200? - Creek OBH-14 - I'd have gotten one by now but I have yet to see one pop up on the used market. Probably a good sign.
$300-400? - Musical Fidelity X-24K - older DAC (circa 2000), but it looks nice and let's me stay with the appealing X-component form factor (I have an X-ACT and X-LPS now). Maybe a little overpriced - I can't help but think that for that money I could get something better
$400-600 - Channel Islands DAC - undoubtedly the best DAC on the list, but also the most expensive, so it would take the longest for me to save up the coinage.

Anything I'm missing from the list?
hudsonhawk
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
I agree battery power has its strengths. I also feel a well implemented power supply that runs off the mains can offer up serious competition. In some cases surpassing battery power in the dynamic areas. The condition of the mains from the start is also a factor I would think.

Too bad I don't have an extra Audio Sector Dac laying around. I would take you up on the challenge Flye and have one DAC battery modded. This way I could compare it to the stock unit. Don't let the size fool you. The digital / analog sections power inputs and grounds are separated on this unit. It is extremely quiet and dynamic all by itself.You're going to have to dig deep to out do this little guy in its present form.;-) I think Peter Daniels did an awesome job of engineering this DAC from scratch.

Cheers
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Bombaywalla,
Please tell us more about your trial and include comparisons vs the Wadia...thx,
Spencer
fishwater
178 posts
 
There seems to be quite a few battery powered designs out there. I think it is something I need to investigate a little further myself to replace my Benchmark.
undertow
1,033 posts
 
As a matter of fact on the power cord, We had 2 of the DAC-AH's stock and set up parallel into one preamp, one on the auxilary input, one on the CD input, A-B testing on the fly at the touch of a button all the same cables and transport, and trust me between 3 people doing the Testing (listening at the same time) we all determined the biggest direct tweak you can do was to use a good thick power cable, the Bass completly went to a much higher resolution level, far more detail, with the stock cord it sounded good, but was totally like a 1 note bass in comparison to the better cable...Soundstage might have expanded a little too which added to the deeper effect? We actually took it a step further and made sure to use both STOCK cables one on each dac and hear that they were the same in the first place and that the better power on either unit would improve it, and it did! we came to the conclusion there was a 20% solid enhancement with the power cord.

We then decided screw it lets pull out some left over deadner material for the panels and cover this sucker, and see what happens vs. the stock, well again a SMALLER but different sound difference, it just seemed a bit smoother sounding or more control with cleaner but nicer rolled off sound.. not sure what really accounted for this.
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
Undertow, I noticed the same thing when I changed from the basic 18 gauge PC over to a Belden 14 gauge PC on my DAC. I also heard an improvement when I plugged the unit directly in the wall verses into a power conditioner.

I'm not a huge believer in the PC thing..but I did hear a difference for the better going with the 14 gauge Belden verses stock PC. A friend and I also tested the Belden against a TICE power cord which was something like 8 Gauge. Again the Belden was the better of the two PCs to our ears.
The key is a good PC..not necessarily an expensive one though.
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