External DAC Recommendation

The Thing with Dacs is they are an analogue device that happens to have digital inputs.. The Mdac is also a preamp, allows switching between several sources and volume control so fits many uses (for me, it might not for you).. I tried a FIIO and a few other cheaper DACs when choosing as I was wanting to spend as little as possible but this let me get rid of pre-amp (the sale of which almost totally paid for the MDac, but thats a moot point).

Was just offering up another option for the op, totally appreciate that it might to total overkill for them.. But if you dont try these things you will never know what you might be missing.

Get an Mdac on loan and have a listen, be interested to hear what you think (as you have no expectation bias).
 
samcat said:
The Thing with Dacs is they are an analogue device that happens to have digital inputs.. The Mdac is also a preamp, allows switching between several sources and volume control so fits many uses (for me, it might not for you).. I tried a FIIO and a few other cheaper DACs when choosing as I was wanting to spend as little as possible but this let me get rid of pre-amp (the sale of which almost totally paid for the MDac, but thats a moot point).

Was just offering up another option for the op, totally appreciate that it might to total overkill for them.. But if you dont try these things you will never know what you might be missing.

Get an Mdac on loan and have a listen, be interested to hear what you think (as you have no expectation bias).
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Thanks, man, honestly, I really don't want to end up spending more on a DAC than a pair of headphones but I will Defo have a look :)
 
spoffle said:
Because the things you're saying about DACs are of the same vein as the things people say about speaker cables. There isn't actually any legitimate reason for why more expensive DACs = better sound due to the expense aspect.
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Admittedly, I could have worded that post better.


PHazlington said:
Yeah, I'm buying a pair of K550s and nothing else, I really don't think this is a viable hahaha! I'd be spending more than 3 times the cost of my headphones on a DAC :/
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To spend £500 on a DAC when the headphones are £150 or so, would be madness really.

£100 is plenty enough to spend to get something good.
 
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have a look at maverick audio tubemagic d1.
its fantastic value and great sound quaility
 
direct from the maker. Google- mav-audio
shame your not closer you could have listened to mine.
 
PHazlington said:
Ahh, thanks anyway man, appreciate the gesture :)
What headphones you using with it?
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main use at the moment is as a dac for my pc, its connected to an arcam amp and that has some kef speakers connected, cod sounds great:D. Ive got a set of senns 380 headphones but looking to get some open backed asap. Usual problem my taste in phones is bigger budget than my wallet:(
 
Finguz said:
The Stoner Acoustics UD110v2 is a great little DAC!

For the money ($49.99 + postage ) it's almost rude not to own one ;)
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It looks pretty cool (I'll consider it the raspberry pi of DACs!) Only things that would make me hesitant about it is the durability (I can be clumsy at times) and also the fact that it doesn't have an enclosure which would mean interference from external sources causing the quiet hissing sound that my current sound card makes :(

So not quite the solution but I will Defo remember it and reccomend it to friends because, you're right, it is a steal :)
Thanks anyway man!
 
PHazlington said:
It looks pretty cool (I'll consider it the raspberry pi of DACs!) Only things that would make me hesitant about it is the durability (I can be clumsy at times) and also the fact that it doesn't have an enclosure which would mean interference from external sources causing the quiet hissing sound that my current sound card makes :(

So not quite the solution but I will Defo remember it and reccomend it to friends because, you're right, it is a steal :)
Thanks anyway man!
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You're welcome, and I wouldn't have mentioned it if it hissed at all :cool:
 
Ordered the K550s and the E10! Super excited, will update you folks on how they sound once I've burned them in. Now to get going with the DIY headphone stand :D
Question: I read somewhere that the burn in period should be 40 hours at a medium volume: Does this sound right? More or less time?
 
PHazlington said:
Ordered the K550s and the E10! Super excited, will update you folks on how they sound once I've burned them in. Now to get going with the DIY headphone stand :D
Question: I read somewhere that the burn in period should be 40 hours at a medium volume: Does this sound right? More or less time?
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Finally got my Bushmaster DAC up and running today, one word description.....AWESOME!

Burn in periods vary. I started music looping this afternoon, i'm leaving headphones on low volume for approx 48 hours.
 
So the DAC arrived, I didn't expect it to be so tiny!
As for the sound quality, through my Dullcandys, it actually doesn't sound that great to be honest. The treble is quite crashy and harsh and the mids sound a bit more jumbled (this is in comparison to the creative card).
Despite this, I'm sure the K550s and some EQ optimisation will do the trick :)
 
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