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Budget DAC

On Wednesday I will receive my pair of Vandersteen 1C loudspeakers. As that I am building this system piece by piece I purchased those first and as a temporary amp solution I've purchased an old NAD 3140 integrated amp to drive them while I look for an amp and save money.

Temporarily I'm forced to use a headphone jack to RCA cable to get audio from my TV as that it's only output is an SPDIF coax, and the Apple TV only has optical out. I'm pretty unhappy with this temporary solution, as you can imagine.

I intend to eventually move into a tube amp within the next few months; probably a Jolida, Yaqin, or Dynaco ST-70. Either way I'll need a DAC for output from my AppleTV, TV, and Macbook Pro.

I'm looking for a solid DAC that will provide me the following things: SPDIF coaxial input, optical input, USB input, and the best possible decode rate I can get for my money. I'd like something that looks good (if possible) and is <$300 (or thereabouts, lower is better). I am open to used equipment, and I'd love to go used to find something that gets me more bang for my buck.

I've been looking at the Peachtree Audio DACiT, Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100, Music Hall DAC15.2, all of which can be had around $300... but I'm sure I'm missing some options.

Suggestions?
greatwhitebat
greatwhitebat OP
35 posts
 
Greatwhitebat, Apple TV converts 44.1kHz to 48kHz (native HD format) loosing sound quality on the conversion. Read this...

This appears to only be the case when you are using airplay.
I the only time I use airplay is when someone else is at my house and I don't have the music they want to play in my home sharing library. On those occasions I really don't care enough to spend more than I would spend on any other single piece in this fairly low budget system on a re-clocking doowhacky. I'll read up more on this, but I feel like this is likely a non-issue for me.

Arcam RDAC

A nice suggestion for sure. I kept looking at the irDAC and it's out of my range.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Peachtree DACit is very good, esp. on acoustic music , might be a bit smooth for a hard-core rocker though.
apdxyk
20 posts
 
TEAC DACs are worth a look
bgoeller
73 posts
 
I am using the DACit in my 'polite listening' system between an Apple TV and a pair of NAD 214 amps vertically bi-amped to Kef C300 bookshelf speakers.

I stream exclusively through MOG, TBD what service I will use after MOG sunsets at the end of the month.

The DACit performs admirably. Certainly better, IMHO, than the only other similarly priced DAC I've tried, the Cambridge DACMagic.
stevngo
1 posts
 
Well I just ordered a silver Parasound Zdac from Audioadvisor.com for $299.00 shipped. I would have picked up a Dacitx if I could find it for the same price since I am using USB. From what I read, the standard Dacit USB is not very good.
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