All this talk of DAC's........

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

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Well I seem to have gone and bought one without actually going to buy one. :o

I popped into Richer Sounds today just to have a chat and asked them how I can compare a DAC to my current setup, which is a ASUS Xonar DG and a Topping NX1 amp. I cannot take my PC in, so how is one able to test how good they are?

Well they basically just said buy one and we will offer you a no quibble 14 day money back guarantee. So I bought an Arcam rPAC DAC with built in headphone amp. :eek:

Iv4BCI3.jpg


Anyway she is a thing of absolute beauty. Weighs a ton (even though it is probably just the casing) but I am pretty impressed so far. Easy to install, just plug in and play.

I will offer further thoughts over the next two weeks as I really need to test it out on my headphones and speakers will all genres of music and games.

What fun. :D
 
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I just had an Audioengine D1 delivered today and I love the sound quality, puts the STX in the shade. I'm sure you will notice a huge leap in quality over a sound card. I will do a review of the d1 soon.
 
Nice DAC/Amps, both of them. I was looking at the iPAC but I wanted a good quality rotary analogue volume control and I also looked at the D1 and O2D but went with the Aune T1 tube DAC/Amp in the end as it sounds great, looks good, is built like a tank, has a lovely smooth volume control and offers the opportunity of tube rolling to further tailor the sound. It seems to suit my AKG K702's perfectly, the bass seems to have a better thump, the treble is smoother with no loss of detail and the soundstage is both huge and three dimensional, more so than with the STX.

... plus it lights up and I like shiny things :D
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Can the xonar DG output a line out signal or are you double amping them?

If your double amping what headphones are you using?
Click to expand...

I was using the DG and NX1 (but putting the volume on the DG right down so letting the NX1 do the work) but have been doing some stringent testing on the combo this week (basically listening to the music properly) and I have concerns that the NX1 is making the DG sound worse. My headphones are Creative Aurvana Live 2's.

I am using the rPAC just by itself as it has it's own amp. The NX1 is just in the picture which I think may have caused confusion.

Anyway, after using the rPAC last night I am warming to it a lot. I cannot make any proper comments yet as I did have a few beers last night, so it might have had something to do with it but I listened to both the Etherwood and alt-J last night and the sound is altogether richer and I am hearing nuances in the music I had not heard before.

This is all Streaming through Deezer Premium+ (up to 320kbps) which is my main source of audio at the moment.

I'll be selling the DG and NX1 on if I decide to keep it.
 
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I have a xonar DG which I use on it's own.

It's good for £20 but in reality it's crap compared with a £100-£200 DAC/AMP.

I also have a topping nx1 which I use with the line out of my iPod touch using a fiio l9 lod. This sounds brilliant in comparison to the xonar DG.

Mind you I tested the topping with iem's and the xonar with Fidelio x1's.

I think the issue may be the xonar DG tbh, not the topping.
 
Weight wise that would be good for me for a desktop headphone amp - hate it when a headphone amp moves about with the cable.
 
well the Arcam rPAC will feed those speakers just fine, as long as you don't mind losing any Dolby signal processing you get from the D1.
 
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