Bargain Basement, Giant Killing DACs for PC Audio

I've found the cheap "giant killer" DACs like the V-DAC and DAC Magic don't quite live up to the hype. Some here love them, and that's all fine and good. But let's be serious. My ca. 1987 Theta 307 DAC beat the supposed giant killers I had in my home.

I own the new Rega DAC, and it's a fantastic DAC. Far better than anything I've heard at or below it's price. I wouldn't call it a giant killer, as it doesn't do what the dCS priced stuff can do. But I'm pretty sure it'll be get quite a bit of good press. As much as the Apollo was loved by the rags, the DAC is quite a bit better to my ears.

And I compared a bunch of so-called giant killer DACs in my system. They didn't hold a candle to my Apollo. I don't miss my Apollo now that I've got a Rega DAC fed by my Apple TV Gen 1. I'm speaking from a sound quality perspective, not a convience perspective even though the convenience factor is through the roof.

The price range is pretty wide so I'm not sure which "Giant" you might want to slay. If you can find one, I really like the Audio-GD Ref. 8 DAC. The Ref. 7. is supposed to be a bit more revealing, albeit very similar otherwise. I have no direct experience with the latter (7). They both use 8 PCM 1704 chips, which I personally find quite musical and natural sounding when well implemented, as in these DACs (though my experience is with the RE8 which I use in my office system). The DAC in my main system also uses the same chip. The Audio GD have a rather large footprint and are quite heavy, so if that is an issue look elsewhere. If you have objections to Chinese-built components look elsewhere. The current usual suspects that come to mind are the Zodiac+, the Wyred4Sound DAC2 and the PS Audio Perfect Wave, as far as peak performance erring on the more revealing side. Seems to me the push-pull direction in DACs these days seems to be the ultra-revealing vs the more musical. My preferences seem to be in the realms of the latter.

I don't know about the V-dac "not living up to its hype". I find it to be altogether excellent. Source is a Gen 1 Apple TV. I really really like it.

Well you are most likely NOT going to find a sub $500 DAC that beats a full dcs stack but I took the OP to mean that he wanted something that gave him enjoyable sound from a computer based system while the technology continues to evolve. If I misunderstood, I stand corrected. I have the MusicStreamer II+ driving NHT M00/S00 set up in my home office and I find it always enjoyable. Inexpensive, small, no external power supply needed. Hook that sucker up to a netbook, a Ray Samuels portable HP amp and some Etys and you have great (maybe not SOTA, but damn good) sound in a package you can almost tuck in your pocket.

I've tried a few inexpensive USB DAC's in my office system, the Nuforce uDAC, the Valab, the Beresford 7520 with the opamp upgrade and now the Aune Mini. The Aune is as good as the Beresford at half the price and way better than the Valab or the Nuforce. At $160 shipped its a real bargain. It's beautifully made, can be used as a preamp and has a pretty good headphone amp built in.