Accuphase dac 60

"In my opinion, AKM is sonically superior to ESS"

agreed 100%, the best DAC I have is dual AK4499EQ design with class A discrete bal/unbal outputs 

@westcoastaudiophile 

thanks, good to know. I wish I had the time, energy and money to try a bunch of dac’s, but I don’t.

just going to stick with the dac 60 when it gets back to me.

@duketbrd88 

glad you found the culprit to the weird behavior!

once your dac 60 card is back and making music like it is supposed to, i am sure you will enjoy the music even more than with the psa d-link...

all the best!

@jjss49 

Thanks, I’m sure I will. Appreciate it!

@duketbrd88 , glad to hear a found mechanical problem was the root cause of the lower volume.

A venerable E-450 in the office has seen a few add in DACs DAC30, 40, 50... each one's level matches the amp's gain and each one improves the sound. For the older DACx , I move them into the other option slot to add in a coax or optical input, works well, the major change is the USB input/

Not sure if you have PC for playing, be sure to install the ASIO driver that can be downloaded from the Accuphase site, it has a buffer selector to compensate for those players that don't have a buffer. The install is quite finicky, so it helps to follow the instructions correctly.

Like all Accuphase gear, they very rarely breakdown, if in the future something comes amiss, check the computer first. In one case, the DAC-50 didn't work off the bat, tried another computer and worked fine, both were Windows10 installs. 

If the USB source is powered off, the signal goes through, but nothing plays. In this case stop the player, disconnect the USB and reinsert again. This 99% of the time works when the player is restarted and music starts to play.