What would you buy Sub $350 Firewire/USB DAC

Given that the interest in USB DACs is relatively new, I wonder if the next year or so will bring reasonably good budget audiophile products to the market.

I think there's a decent likelihood of that. But as Musicman suggested, the more expensive chipset seems to be a key ingredient, as does some firmware that has to be licensed. Both of these imply steeper price points. Take my comments with a grain of salt, they're just my impressions based on investigating this topic for the past few months.

Pacific Valvel certainly does put a US face on the product. The primary thing that came up when I researched them is that the products they sell have been properly specced and built for the US market - 117/60.

At the time one could order the same products directly from the factory for less money but apparently some people did not get US optimized equipment.

Prof - service is expensive - the product has to provide the dealer and the manufacturer margins...

And of course since this is a digital product, Moore's law more or less applies - someone will build more performance into a piece of silicon for the same money within 6-18 months.

It is axiomatic with these kinds of products that whatever you buy will shortly be rendered obsolete or at least old hat. It is equally true that it will always perform to its design level.

So it comes down to buying when you want or need something, knowing that something better or at least slightly different is coming.

So, this is where I am now:

1) Purchase the inexpensive Moon DAC from the US-based Pacific valve company

2) Wait a couple of days to hear what Scott Nixon has available in my price range

3) Discuss purchasing the CA DacMagic with my wife.

Even though things are likely to change over the next year or two, for the price range that I'm considering, it isn't worth taking a wait and see approach. If things get much better five years down the road, then I'll have something to request for a gift (my wife buys me really, really nice gifts--iPods, 42" plasma screen, pro audio equipment, & etc)

MP

Hello All, I have the Valab Dac, actually it is the second one, 6 of the 8 dac chip capacitors began to fail, the ends of the cap opened up and the contents began to vacate the cap casing. This first dac sounded extremely open and transparant at the same time a little steely and ragged, it was also extremely 3 dimensional, moreso than anything I had heard. Problem is, was I hearing a dac with bad caps, it sounded so good I was willing to overlook the bad points and work on balancing the sound. The second is going through break in at this time, so far it is smoother and less vivid and not as 3 dimensional. The Valab has gone through some changes, one day there were pictures of the dac on his E-Bay ad with different caps and a slightly different board layout, well my second dac arrived with a mixture of some new caps that were only available for a couple of days then Kevin posted some pictures with Rubycon caps and Nec caps, according to his ad this is what he will be using in future production. In any case, it is well worth the asking price.

Hello Phil--

You are not alone. Please see:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/valab-dac-first-impressions-378459/index5.html

It seems to me that the Pacific Valve Co's NOS USB DAC is pretty much the same thing, but available states side.

I am still waiting to hear about the Scott Nixon option. When I sent him an email, he replied within hours with what he has available at the moment. I've heard really good things about his work. He has two different USB NOS DACs--one solid state, the other tube. The latter is out of stock, but I am hoping that he might have one come in on trade and be able to sell it to me in my price range. For those interested, you can see his work here:

http://www.scott-nixon.com/dac.htm

Best,

MP