2. digital
  3. 1142631423

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
undertow
1,033 posts
 
I would compare the WADIA hooked up via Analog like it is and Simply connect the Digital out to the DAC, Then you have an Equivelant Transport with the Same CD loaded and can switch between your DAC and INTERNAL DAC of the Wadia on the Fly with the remote by just hitting AUX or CD on your preamp, this will be very fast to tell you which one is superior for cost. Take the Sony out of the equation entirely, you might find a suprise in that dac feed the same. Just a suggestion, then you have a straight up fair comparison.
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Undertow,
Thanks for making the suggestion. I did think of what you wrote & decided not to go ahead because (1) the digital inputs have been disabled per Wadia's recommendation. They suggested that if the unit is being used as a single-box player, the performance is little better w/ the digital inputs disabled. I have to get this 60lb monster off the shelf, completely disassemble the top & bottom plates of the chassis to get to the DIP switches on the bottom to re-enable the digital inputs. A royal PITA! & (2) the Wadia running into the Saru DAC+ is likely to sound quite compromised since I will not be able to make use of the Clocklink feature (that now exists internally between the internal DAC & transport). From whatever I have read from other Wadia users, this Clocklink feature is of paramount importance in making the Wadia separates sounding superb. This is understandable - Wadia correctly implemented the clocking scheme by using the DAC clock to lock the transport. When one uses Wadia separates, all Wadia gear comes w/ the Clocklink feature & one is able to turn it on from a menu pick. The Saru DAC+ provides no such feature. Thus, the Wadia transport+Saru DAC+ combination is going to sound way inferior to the Wadia 1-box thereby leading to an incorrect conclusion.
(If there is any Wadia user reading this, let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks!)
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
Bombaywalla,
Thanks for the little review...good stuff! Nice to hear the SN DAC did well against the heavy hitting Wadia. It's funny what sorts of things run through your mind when comparing units of such wide price differences. You kind of hope the expensive unit comes out on top. Especially if you paid for it with your cash.LOL $150 DAC against a $9000 unit ... yeap diminishing returns is a mother.

I wish I lived closer I would love to bring my DAC over for a comparison. If nothing else it would be fun.

Glad you can put your mind to ease a little.

All the best,
hudsonhawk OP
137 posts
 
So, for those curious, I received my modded Dac-Ah and broke it in. All I have to say is, people aren't kidding when they talk this thing up. This is a genuinely musical, dynamic piece. It has a sweet, smooth midrange which does vocals exceptionally well; the imaging is "3-d" in a way I've only heard on higher-end pieces.

It's funny, I made a similar note when listening that Bombaywalla did while listening to his Nixon DAC - bad CD's sound *bad*. I've got two theories about this - I wonder if either these CD's have digital noise that's actually in the master, or these DACs are particularly jitter-prone.

Obviously I can't compare it to the unmodded version of the DAC, but I can definitely say that these things are the genuine article. It's the most impressed I've been with a piece of budget digital gear since the original Rega Planet.
islandflyfisher
94 posts
 
I’ve got to chime in here. I’ve owned an Audio Mirror for a number of months and have experienced what everyone is talking about regarding NOS DAC’s. I couldn’t be happier with mine.

One of my biggest frustrations is this crazy hobby is a bad sounding CD. I’ve got tons of them that until recently, only listening to them in the office or car.

I just made a huge switch changing over from a Marantz SA14 SACD player which was mostly used as a redbook transport with the Audio Mirror to a digital music server which is PC based.

I ripped all my CD’s to AIFF files in iTunes and used a product by Roku to bridge the signal from my PC to the Audio Mirror DAC.

End result is improved sound on all CD’s but a major improvement on poor engineered CD’s. Yeap, I can listen to them all now. I think it’s all about error correction. A CD transport can only do so much. Near perfect CD error correction for today PC is a simple process for them.
More to discover