[F16TEH]

I recently put together this setup for $1500 for my family room. I have definitely caught the bug and am already looking to upgrade. Comments and upgrade suggestions welcome.


Speakers - Silverline Minuet (I have limited space)

Sub - PSW 111 (again, due to limited budget and space)

Amp - Onkyo A-9555 - wanted more power than my old 40 wpc & phono - plus remote works with Onkyo digital transport

DAC - Ambery 5210 - a Beresford knockoff

Onkyo ND-S1 digital transport


Turntable and CD player are, shall we say, "vintage," but CD player does have digital out. I run both CD and iPod through the DAC.

 

[tvrgeek]

Room treatments. No question. Then think about DIY subs.


Never heard of the Ambery. Thanks for the tip

 

[tvrgeek]

Don't see it listed on their WEB. Is it new or old?

 

[tvrgeek]

Now I found it. They don't call it a DAC. Good value, built in optical switch. Not current top of the line DAC chip though. How does it sound? Know anything about it's analog output stage? Variable output would make it a "digital preamp"

 

[F16TEH]

I found out about this DAC on Gearslutz. Original post is the $79 DAC. A few years ago, Stan Beresford produced this DAC and it was considered pretty good for the money. Beresford must have sold it or others copied it because the Ambery and the MCM Electronics version seem to have the same chips. MCM was out of stock, so I got it off of e-Bay for $115.

gearslutz.com/board/geekslutz-forum/328799-seventy-nine-dollar-dac.html (sorry I am new to this board so I can't post links yet)


As far as sound goes, I am new to separate DACs, but compared to what is in my CD player (also 24 bit, 96K) there is a significant difference. Also, what really makes this system is the Onkyo doc that bypasses the internal iPod DAC and routes it via optical or coaxe to the external DAC. Using apple "lossless" I cannot tell the difference between this and CD. I have not tested this using the A-9555 amp yet, so with a better amp, I may be able to tell.


The DAC has variable output on one channel for headphones or for whatever.