Budget USB DAC

Ausjoe,

The Fubar III comes with a wall-wart power supply. It does not come with the Supplier power supply. If you look at the bottom right corner of the page, you'll say a box to check to add the Supplier power supply for an addition $100. The Fubar III is a Fubar II with the addition of a headphone amplifier.

UHF Magazine just published a review of Blue Circle's The "Thingee", USB converter/DAC. It can be used to convert the USB output to another type of interface such as coax, optical, or balanced (SPDIF?) for output to an external DAC. However, in the article they said their "jaws dropped" and "How could it be this good?"when they heard the analog output from the onboard DAC of The Thingee. For $170 to $190 it might be worth looking into.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I saw the review on Stereo Link in the NY Times. I think they are backlogged because of that article.

Fubar II needs an external power supply? Guess I thought it was usb powered. I'll check out their web site again.

The Thingee sounds interesting for the price. I have surfed their web site before. Looks like you can config it the way you would like as far as connections.

I'll keep looking. Wish one of these would show up here on A'gon from someone that upgraded to a higher priced unit.

Once again - The Fubar II comes with a wall-wart power supply. It is not bus powered. The upgraded "Supplier" power supply improves the performance of the Fubar II.

FOLLOWUP:
I have used a stereo link, a fubar with power supply and an m=hdt paradesa. I like them all. If budget allows, id start with the fubar and work up....

I think hagtech sells a usb dac for cheap as a kit if you can build it...