Looking for a Solidly good inexpensive DAC

Kartracer

sorry, but no. I'm superstitious.

Obviously you are already trying some dacs, but I will throw in my vote for apogee minidac. I have two, and they compared favorably and could not be displaced by benchmark or BC dac2 (not dac3, which is twice the price).

Jeffkad
Thanks much.

The things which put me off giving it a go was it's power supply, some uncertainty about which way to wire it for SE operation, and from what I was told by some users of it's 'mid to rear of hall' presentation. The latter, more so than the others, truth be told.

Their support people I spoke with are friendly and readily accessible. it can be had for a reasonable price too. I might yet try it unless this next unit just floats my boat more so than this DA 10 has done so far.

Good luck, and I can't wait to find out what dac you are trying next. I think I'm going to try some mods, either to my sonos, or to a mid priced dac, like the BelCanto dac2 I have, or possibly to a PS Audio Digital Link lll or, at a more expensive level, a Northstar 192. Regards..Jeff

Jeffkad
...and good luck to you as well.

Had I greater paitience and the desire to install a revolving door for equipment at my home, I could have tried several units... and many listed herein on this particular thread.

I have a bit of a philosophical issue there however... and some disdain for sending and receiving gear repeatedly with no intent to purchase at that point in time... 'just browsing...'

... and maybe errantly, I felt not too many makers were up for sending along their DACs to me for an in fact, well, heads up shoot out. Maybe they would have... I dunno.

consequently, some reading, asking here, and stabbing at those which I perceive mostly meet my needs, seemed the best way for me to go.

I'm not thrilled by the cost increases I've encountered now, or will soon, but the performance (given info online) does seem comensurate with the entry fee (s) for each DAC I'm gonna check out.

I feel ultimately my needs will be met in the end... my tastes are the factors padding the price hikes... mostly.

I settled on both this DA 10 and one other due to their industry reputations, past and present... support, and service tangibility. I'm becoming quite leary of products which are driven by singular entities, lately. Depending on the item being produced of course, ie., static devices such as cabling, power sups, tubes, pucks, cones, platforms, etc, all are one off, work or don't work products... I've no issues who makes them or if they remain in business or not. They'll not be requiring serviceing or ongoing attentionn from their makers. Usually.

For those efforts which may require servicing at some future date, amps, preamps, DACs, TT's, etc., I enjoy the assurance the maker has been and is most likely to be around for that event down the road.

Curiously however, in this "cottage industry at it's finest", one never knows. to me, track records, tangible interaction, and performance formulate much of my buying trends presently. I've said previously in fact, exactly that. Thereafter, only price tags are the decider, or limiter.