Rob-ber
Well-Known Member
In my humble opinion you can get more quality for much less money! Buy a Khadas Toneboard, one of the best dac boards out there, and buy a nice stable power supply. Definitely a stunning result!
DAC recommendation for vintage system
- Thread starter quadmatrix82
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rhing
Active Member
I have a Denafrips Pontus II and recently bought a Denafrips Ares 12th-1. If you want an organic, analog-type presentation, I would recommend an R2R DAC like the Denafrips DACs mentioned. Denafrips offers firmware updates, but I haven’t tried them, because they sound excellent as-is. For streaming, I use a Raspberry Pi 4 running Volumio 3 that allows me to play my ripped CDs off a hard drive and stream high resolution music from Tidal.
I’ve dabbled with the ESS sigma-delta DACs. To my ears, there is no comparison—R2R DACs give my Technics SL-1200GR a good run for the money.
I’ve dabbled with the ESS sigma-delta DACs. To my ears, there is no comparison—R2R DACs give my Technics SL-1200GR a good run for the money.
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xdd
Active Member
Whilst the latter is quite true, the former is rather questionable as it takes no account of the propensity for switching PSUs to generate common-mode noise. Many DACs have only SE (RCA) outputs and the CM noise is often going to travel down those RCA ICs placing it firmly in series with the wanted audio signal.
Bodhi1
Super Member
There is a Luxman DA-250 d/a converter which just went up for sale on Canuck Audio Mart in claimed mint condition, asking $2100CAD (approx $1555USD). The dac uses the Texas Instruments PCM1795 32 bit dac chips which are described as having an "advanced segment DAC architecture to achieve excellent dynamic performance and improved tolerance to clock jitter". It also has a good headphone amp. Luxman's sound should fit in nicely to a vintage system, though it would be a matter of personal preference if you like it's look. Luxman discontinued their line of dacs a few years ago, but they have a good track record of supporting legacy products. So the dac should be serviceable for decades to come, and reasonably future-proof.
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The Pontus is pretty tempting waiting for a used one to come up in my end of the woods to try it seems on paper to tick all the boxes just doesn’t do mqa but don’t think it really matters..worse case someone else will want it if it does t work out in my set up
Look
Looks pretty nice and would definitely fit in asthetically I don’t see many of them on the used market that’s a good sign I suppose!
For around 1500 pretty hard to beat the Denafrips Ares II if talking new. You may be able to find a used Denafrips Pontis for that sum. If so buy it. It will be better than the Ares.
OP: I have four Blusound Nodes in various level systems throughout the house; all connected to various level external DACs. In every case there was a noticeable improvement over the internal DAC on the Node2i. As an experiment I put my most expensive DAC (Berkeley Audio Alpha) in the budget system based around a Fosi ZA3 and compared it to the DAC in that system (SMSL D6S).
I couldn’t hear much of a difference between the DACs because that particular system isn’t revealing enough to take advantage of the Berkeley’s abilities. In that system the $200 SMSL was plenty. Point being before you spend $1,500 on a DAC make sure your whole system can take advantage of it. SMSL makes excellent DACs especially at the under $500 level which can be surprisingly good.
I couldn’t hear much of a difference between the DACs because that particular system isn’t revealing enough to take advantage of the Berkeley’s abilities. In that system the $200 SMSL was plenty. Point being before you spend $1,500 on a DAC make sure your whole system can take advantage of it. SMSL makes excellent DACs especially at the under $500 level which can be surprisingly good.
I tried a bunch of DACs (including some higher end models) before I settled on the one I have, an SMSL SU-9. All the connections I could need good chipset. It's the only one I liked the sounds of over BT when I am being lazy. Just a good, solid unit. I have been a fan of SMSL for ages....just seem to get it right more often than not.
Rob-ber
Well-Known Member
Agree! Last week I connected a SMSL SU-1 as a dac between my TV and preamp. I think its a lot of quality for € 70.
ProudArmyBra
Member
Very intersting thread since I want to add a DAC to my bedroom system which is vintage 1992. At some point I want to add both to my 1970's system as well. I mostly want to add Blue Tooth the DAC is just a great bonus. So for me the ability to use blue thooth and WiFi is as important as the DAC maybe more so.
I am looking at WiiM and SMSL at the moment.
If you know how to use a soldering iron and feel comfortable with populating a board you can find some kits that I hear are killer on Ebay. Not tried them myself but considering it.
My CD player has a Wolfson DAC that I think sounds fantastic.
What I want to know is how the sub $400 units sound since that is the sand box I want to play around in at this point! I do not know anyone that owns WiiM, SMSL, Fossi stuff in real life. There is likewise no place I can go to listen to those unit IRL like a brick and mortar store. I guess I will have to be my own sample size of one!
I pay for spotify for my family of 5 so being able to get that into my vintage gear is what I am really after everything after that is just a bonus.
I am looking at WiiM and SMSL at the moment.
If you know how to use a soldering iron and feel comfortable with populating a board you can find some kits that I hear are killer on Ebay. Not tried them myself but considering it.
My CD player has a Wolfson DAC that I think sounds fantastic.
What I want to know is how the sub $400 units sound since that is the sand box I want to play around in at this point! I do not know anyone that owns WiiM, SMSL, Fossi stuff in real life. There is likewise no place I can go to listen to those unit IRL like a brick and mortar store. I guess I will have to be my own sample size of one!
I pay for spotify for my family of 5 so being able to get that into my vintage gear is what I am really after everything after that is just a bonus.
If Spotify is your main use case I’d get a WiiM Pro Plus.
ProudArmyBra
Member
Yes at this point yes that is my main need. Obviously like any tech that is new to you only time will tell how it changes your behavior. So while I initialy just want to listen to an endless music library on my bedroom system I am sure I will find more uses for it!
I just ordered a WiiM Pro Plus. According to Amazon it should be on my door step tomorrow!
It will be intersting to see how it handles the data from my CD player vs the built in Wolfson DAC in the CD player.
I just ordered a WiiM Pro Plus. According to Amazon it should be on my door step tomorrow!
It will be intersting to see how it handles the data from my CD player vs the built in Wolfson DAC in the CD player.
That's a high res front end that you have there..
Helps when you're listening to gear that can resolve the subtleties of the better DAC's ...
Receivers aren't operating at the level of your gear.
DAC's are like flavors of ice cream .. all a bit different from each other.. and the subtleties of the higher end DAC's probably aren't audible in a lower resolution system.
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agree on SMSL. My go-to DAC has become the M500. I have 2 of them that I pair with Wiim mini streamers using WiFi. One might be the Mk II that I have (think they are now on Mk III), but I don't notice a difference in the output between the 2 and to my ears both sound great. Pairs very nicely with the Wiim streamers as well - I use the optical ports to go from Streamer to DAC
As other said - everyone's going to have different preferences in DACs I think
ProudArmyBra
Member
So I got a WiiM Pro Plus and set it up. I spent 4 hours none stop listening to music. I forgot how much I lived music. 3 times as I was lying on my bed eye's closed listening to music I was moved to tear.
So far I am loving it! It is my first Streamer and DAC. A lot to play around with and learn.
The power cord it came with was no good. It is just a USB to C cable so I had one on hand.
I am actualy curious to see how the built in 10 band eq sounds.
I did not hook up the CD player to it to compare the built in Wolfson DAC in the CD player to the much more modern AKM DAC in the WiiM Pro Plus.
So far I am loving it! It is my first Streamer and DAC. A lot to play around with and learn.
The power cord it came with was no good. It is just a USB to C cable so I had one on hand.
I am actualy curious to see how the built in 10 band eq sounds.
I did not hook up the CD player to it to compare the built in Wolfson DAC in the CD player to the much more modern AKM DAC in the WiiM Pro Plus.
The EQ is there not to please one’s tastes but to compensate for acoustic deficiencies of speakers and room interaction. You need to get some room measurements with a mic and a software package like REW in order to arrive at a meaningful EQ. I wouldn’t bother otherwise.
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