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Dac for under £200

post #1 of 12
3/29/11 at 1:01pm
Thread Starter 
I have epos m12 speakers and a Linn classik amp/cd player, but I would like to play flacs and spotify from my computer and bypass the cheapass onboard soundcard on motherboards. So I want to invest in a quality dac that will give a noticeable improvement over the onboard sound.

Basically I have found:

Pro-ject dac Usb £140

and

Music Fidelity V-DAC - £175

Which one? Or any other suggestions? And I don not have to go all out on RCA cables between the amp and dac? I mean quality budget phono are indiscernible to expensive ones?

Thanks!
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post #2 of 12
3/29/11 at 1:42pm
Quote:


I mean quality budget phono are indiscernible to expensive ones?

Correct.

Also correct, however, is that quality budget DACs are indistinguishable from expensive ones. For the same reason. So if you're going to drink the audiophile Kool-Aid on DACs, why not on cables?
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post #3 of 12
3/29/11 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 
So there is no difference and I should pick the cheaper one? Well that makes me happy Thanks

And they are discernible from mobo sound. Have you ever had to listen to hard drive noise amplified? ;-)
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post #4 of 12
4/1/11 at 7:27am
Personally, I would be suspect of a poster that feels it necessary to have a swear word in his signature line.
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post #5 of 12
4/2/11 at 2:07am
Have a look at the Musiland Monitor 02 US (£74 shipped to UK).
I got one for my laptop and it really is a great little device. With its latest drivers (only Windows, no Mac, no Linux) is rock solid and SQ is fine. Plus it has 2 headphone outs, one for mid & high ohmic and another for low ohmic.
It plays anything from 16/44 to 24/192 including 88.2 and 176.4KHz through its propietary ASIO drivers and drives my K501s way better than my laptop's and desktop's onboard sound cards. For higher volume I use the line out to an external headphone out.

There is a huge thread at headfi.org about this DAC.
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post #6 of 12
4/2/11 at 7:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by runnin' View Post

Personally, I would be suspect of a poster that feels it necessary to have a swear word in his signature line.

Do you mean the author of it or the one who quoted it? Also, what do you think about the meaning of that line?
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post #7 of 12
4/2/11 at 8:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by runnin' View Post

Personally, I would be suspect of a poster that feels it necessary to have a swear word in his signature line.

Well it's actually a quote from me. Not sure what it has to do with sage advice that he has given.

So you burn in cable and get into $2000 DAC's?
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post #8 of 12
4/2/11 at 8:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JavierS View Post

Have a look at the Musiland Monitor 02 US (£74 shipped to UK).
I got one for my laptop and it really is a great little device. With its latest drivers (only Windows, no Mac, no Linux) is rock solid and SQ is fine. Plus it has 2 headphone outs, one for mid & high ohmic and another for low ohmic.
It plays anything from 16/44 to 24/192 including 88.2 and 176.4KHz through its propietary ASIO drivers and drives my K501s way better than my laptop's and desktop's onboard sound cards. For higher volume I use the line out to an external headphone out.

There is a huge thread at headfi.org about this DAC.

Wow, just an initial read at headfi and they are really stoked about this unit. I wonder how it does under WASAPI vs ASIO.
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post #9 of 12
4/2/11 at 9:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinjuku View Post
Well it's actually a quote from me. Not sure what it has to do with sage advice that he has given.

So you burn in cable and get into $2000 DAC's?
Saying it once to make a point is one thing, having the quote as a tag line that appears on every post is just another way to attempt an insult on everyone who disagrees with you. Surely we can all make our points without insults.

And no, I do not use burn in cable, I just bought a 35 ft monoprice cable for my sub for under 8 bucks.
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post #10 of 12
4/2/11 at 11:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by runnin' View Post
Personally, I would be suspect of a poster that feels it necessary to have a swear word in his signature line.
What would you suspect him of? Bad manners?
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post #11 of 12
4/2/11 at 11:42am
Quote:
Saying it once to make a point is one thing, having the quote as a tag line that appears on every post is just another way to attempt an insult on everyone who disagrees with you.
The point is not to insult people. It is to question their credibility.

My credibility gets questioned all the time. For example, people ask me what gear I own. (Or they just flat out call me deaf, which really is an insult, don't you think?)

Now, which of these statements do you think should carry more weight:

1) What you say has no credibility because you don't own the right brands of audio gear.

2) What you say has no credibility because you can't hear what you claim to hear once we throw a cloth over the components.
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post #12 of 12
4/2/11 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by runnin' View Post

Saying it once to make a point is one thing, having the quote as a tag line that appears on every post is just another way to attempt an insult on everyone who disagrees with you.

See here is where things go sideways. I'm not asking anyone to agree or disagree. What is being asked is for some outlandish claims to be backed up in a credible manner.

For what it is worth: I WANT to meet the person that can A/B all this gear and statistically pick it out with significance. That is the person that is going to be able to help me increase my awareness of what is going on in the audible spectrum between two pieces of gear.

Another way of putting it: Trust the audiophile that is confident in wearing a blindfold and can pick out the gear.
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