DAC's in general.....

[Black Sand Cable]

I have been selling Slim products for awhile now and recently added the full Sonos line. Both work as advertised and each has there own respective strengths and weakness's. If I had to pick one, it would be Sonos as I think its a better overall system.....but that is not the point of this post.

Lately more and more people have been asking me for a stand alone DAC to go along with either there Slim or Sonos product. I must admit that this is something I'm not real up on so I asked a few folks their opinion and also did a little digging on my own. A few came back saying that the Transporter is good enough as is but a few (and I'm one of them) feel it isn't.

What I came up with is that most folks don't want a battery powered unit, most want a professionally assembled unit and the majority of folks are looking in the $1K area. Given that information I decided that I would bring a few in and see which one would do the job. After talking to yet more people, I came up with my short list based on a number of determining factors which are too boring to go into here.

Thanks to a few dealers I know, I have the following on route to me for audition:

Benchmark DAC 1
Lavry D10
PS Audio Digital Link III
Behringer Ultracurve Pro 2496

Is there anything else I should be looking at?

I'm looking forward to trying these all out and deciding which one I would use in my own system on a permanent basis. As I don't have a lot of experience with DAC's, I'm going in about as neutral as you can get.

[westcoastman]

I added the Stello DA100 from www.hifi500.com.  At $695US I found it worked well for me and was in the price range I wanted to pay.  It provides a little more definition in the higher frequencies than my Arcam DV137.  I have compared the ARCAM DV137 to the Squeezebox/StelloDA100 and find very little difference when the the Stello DA100 was set to upsample.  When the Stello was set to bypass I was hard pressed to hear any difference between the Squeezebox DAC and the Squeezebox going thru the Stello DAC.

I listen to the SqueezeBox a lot more now with the DAC than I did without where I prefered to listen with to ARCAM DV137.

I feel the Stello DAC could be an alternative to the Benchmark DAC 1 and the PS Audio Digital Link III.

[Black Sand Cable]

Thanks for the info. I have never heard of the Stello DA100 but it fits nicely into the bracket I had in mind. The DA100S also fits as it comes in at under $1K also.

I will see if I can track one down. I normally just ask dealers that I get along with to lend me one but I see these guys sell direct so it may be tough to get my hands on one without having to actually buy it...but we will see.

Thanks again! 

[mdconnelly]

I have a similar interest but from a different angle.   I've got a fully-modded Tact 2.0s with it's own ADC and DAC cards which are quite good (Maui-mods).

But, I find myself in need of a good headphone solution.   Since the Tact does not have a headphone out and since I'm using the analog outs of the Tact Dac card, I was thinking that perhaps a good DAC with an integrated high-quality headphone amp/jack would be worth considering.   I know that both the Benchmark and Lavry have headphone jacks.   Can anyone speak to the quality of those with respect to using headphones?

There's also a fairly inexpensive DAC, the Zero 24/192, that has gotten a lot of discussion on head-fi.   Anyone try it?
 

[hometheaterdoc]

Not advertised well at all.... but the Cayin iDac is something to look into if it's limited input capability works for you (i.e. it has USB input only.... so works for the audio PC guys, not so much for the Squeezebox/Sonos stuff)... but it fits under your budget range.... and has headphone outputs.. so works for you Mike....

I have a guy here in town that raves about the one he got from me... I'll bring one along to the upcoming meet...

now back to mixing mortar for the tile floors...  Home Depot tool rental blows... If I hadn't already completely blown the budget on improvements, I'd just buy the darn things rather than rent them... not that I ever intend on using a 24" wet saw again anytime soon...

[richidoo]

I have been very impressed with Cayin equipment in general. We are fortunate to have 2 Cayin dealers in our city....     So I have been well exposed. The integrated amps are great if you can do with the power. Looking fwd to hearing that USB Dac, Shane../..

Just remember to wash that cement out of your hair before it dries...   

[Black Sand Cable]

In case any one cares, I now have the following on hand:

Benchmark DAC 1
Lavry D10
Behringer Ultracurve Pro 2496

Just waiting on the PS Audio Digital Link III. I have exchanged a couple of very nice phone conversations with Dave Kakenmaster over the last few day's who is the current VP of Sales & Marketing for PS Audio and based on my conversations with him, I'm looking forward to getting the Digital Link III in my hands. We also had a nice talk about PS Audio's power conditioners as he was fully aware that I'm a fan boy of Equi=Tech. It was an interesting conversation and as a result, there may be an Equi=Tech - PS Audio comparison (again) in my near future. But that is for another day.....

Once I get the Digital Link III, I will try them all out and post my general thoughts on each. Not in depth as I'm not a reviewer, and my grammar.....sucks, so it will be my thoughts and not much else. At the end of the day one will stay in my system and the others will go back to the folks who lent them to me.

[richidoo]

That all sounds very interesting. DAC compare, power treatment compare. Good stuff. I want to read about all that. Thanks John!

[mdconnelly]

John,

Results will be very interesting.... can you also include comments on the headphone out capabilities of the Lavry and Benchmark?   (I don't think the other two provide that).  Thanks!

[spudco]

That all sounds very interesting. DAC compare, power treatment compare. Good stuff. I want to read about all that. Thanks John!

ME TOO!  I'm kind of looking for a DAC.

[Black Sand Cable]

John,

Results will be very interesting.... can you also include comments on the headphone out capabilities of the Lavry and Benchmark?   (I don't think the other two provide that).  Thanks!

No problem. I'm not a headphone guy but my father in-law owns the Grado GS 1000's so I will borrow them and see how things go. From what I have read these are a very good set of phones so they should tell the story.

[richidoo]

They will tell you 80% of the story, especially tone and dynamics if the head amp is good. But speakers will tell you how they do space, imaging, depth, width and also low freq dynamics (slam) which headphones don't usually get. Sounds like a fun week of comparisons!
Rich

[Mike L]

In case any one cares, I now have the following on hand:

Benchmark DAC 1
Lavry D10
Behringer Ultracurve Pro 2496

Just waiting on the PS Audio Digital Link III. I have exchanged a couple of very nice phone conversations with Dave Kakenmaster over the last few day's who is the current VP of Sales & Marketing for PS Audio and based on my conversations with him, I'm looking forward to getting the Digital Link III in my hands. We also had a nice talk about PS Audio's power conditioners as he was fully aware that I'm a fan boy of Equi=Tech. It was an interesting conversation and as a result, there may be an Equi=Tech - PS Audio comparison (again) in my near future. But that is for another day.....

Once I get the Digital Link III, I will try them all out and post my general thoughts on each. Not in depth as I'm not a reviewer, and my grammar.....sucks, so it will be my thoughts and not much else. At the end of the day one will stay in my system and the others will go back to the folks who lent them to me.

I was about to compare the Premier Power Plant to an Equitech 2q a few months ago, but never did get around to doing it.  I'll let you do it for me now 

[bacobits]

Hey, what happened to this DAC comparison??
Interested since I got my Benchmark DAC1 sounding killer here.


Den

[Black Sand Cable]

Still going. I tend to take my time with these things. I have thrown the new Opera Audio (Consonance) DAC16 into the mix along with the very expensive Accustic Arts DAC I-MK4.

I'm almost done.....

http://www.opera-consonance.com/products/DAC16.htm

http://www.accusticarts.de/pages/en/dac_i_fr.html