I saw that dac, ebay is flooded with them. It seems to get great reviews and I like the price. I might just buy it. With my set up, would this $30 DAC and a $200 one produce about the same sound?
Researching these DAC's gave me a headache last night, I was reading reviews on $200 dacs where users were getting only slightly better quality. Of course most were using them with their macbook pros (fairly decent dac). And then of course, a lot of them were probably already maxing out their equipment.
Those amps seem to be the way to go with a computer set up. It would save space. But with the deal I got on the Yamaha I'd almost prefer to keep it unless those produce similar to better sound. Also as a deciding factor, in the future I wouldn't mind buying a nice cabinet stand to put this yamaha in and match it with floorspeakers. Don't have the space right now though.
Heres the thing... your system should make some sort of sense. For you to spend $200 on a dac to put with the pioneer 22's would be insane in my opinion, since if you want better sound all you have to do is buy better speakers....
For example- your speakers with this dac
LUXMAN DA-06 DSD DAC at Music Direct would be BLOWN AWAY by these speakers
Sierra-2 RAAL Ribbon Tweeter Bamboo Cabinet Loudspeaker and the $30 DAC for much less money total....
So if you are going to spend $200 on a dac first I would recommend upgrading your speakers and using the $30 dac... plenty of options out there for $200-$400
HVL-1 Two-Way Loudspeaker | Wave Crest Audio
CBM-170 SE High Performance Bookshelf Loudspeaker
EPOS EPIC 2 BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS (PR) at Music Direct
and many many more, them will make a difference you don't have to "imagine" to hear... But even after you get a better pair of speakers, I still wouldn't opt for a better dac with that pioneer sub, something like this
SB-1000 - Black Ash - Outlet , now with say them epic 2's that svs sub, you would be approaching a very nice setup, clean fast lows, smooth but defined mids, and livable highs with nothing missing...
Then after you get there I still wouldn't replace the $30 dac beauae adding another matching sub will do wonders for your low end, so there goes another $500, now with dual subs, a nice set of bookshelfs, all managed by the mini dsp, it may be time to think about electronics... But you only have a 60 watt amp so I would start there, with something like a
https://emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/upa-200 and
https://emotiva.com/products/electronics/control-freak to control the volume, that will get you some dynamic headroom and of course more volume if needed... So now you are about $2000 into the system and it may be time to think about a $200 dac, lol...
Hopefully that helps you get over all the BS that some people put in text about high end cd players, dac's, amplifiers, cables, ect.. them items aren't going to get you better sound that you can hear, I seen tests with cd players and amps using equipment that shows differences that the human ear couldn't hear if it was 1000 times more efficient!!! yet they advertise the results... Its all BS, speakers WILL make sound different vs other speakers, but a well made modern day dac, cd player amplifier ect will not help your system in an audible way...
Now when you get to the point of having a decent set of speakers and subs and want something a little more fancy, Sure spend the money on a name or look you like, but keep in mind that $30 muse is going to sound just like it, go in knowing you are buying it because you like the look or feeling you get when you spend the money....
PS I don't want you to think the Pioneer speakers are bad, they are nice for a cheap set of speakers, for critical music listening they are far from what I would call satisfactory, but they will play music and well, just keep in mind for $400 you can get into something that will smoke them in SQ, and then after that for $800 you can find something that will drown the $400 speakers {philharmonitors, sierra 1's, ect}, then for $1500 sierra 2's and kef 50s will be a step above them, and then to get better from there {to my ears} you need to spend much much more, to best the sierra 2's I would need to go up into the $6K area with what I have heard, and I have heard many many speakers...
