Help me find a DAC/AMP

Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Have a look at this which has a USB port. It's available at an attractive price from a reliable seller.
Amazon is asking $899.99 for it:


 
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panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Catchng up late and didn't study everything but these units with a sub out are full band or bass managed or what?
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Catchng up late and didn't study everything but these units with a sub out are full band or bass managed or what?
Mine might just be a summed output, and I think it's full range. No bass management to speak of other than me setting the proper crossover on the sub. Not ideal, but I'm getting what I paid for.

I think with the quality some of these cheaper DACs have it's kind of hard to ignore that one paired with one of the cheap, but somehow equally good low wattage amps that exist might be the best solution. It won't look as "pretty" as the unassuming box with a light and knob looks now, but I bet it will sound better. Or it might not, but it will be cheaper than any all in one solution I've found that actually looks REALLY good.

Now to see if any of them have a sub out or if I'll have to figure out something. One thing that is an option is to use my current amp with an external DAC since it does have an aux in. 3.5mm isn't ideal, but that would be temporary until I can find another amp. Maybe one with some bass management or sub out at a minimum.
 
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kantoliving

kantoliving

Enthusiast
Kind of an old thread but did you end up keeping the YARO2? You mentioned you are limited to 96khz sampling rate with optical but the USB port doesn't offer anything higher that 96khz anyways - none of our speakers go past 96.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Kind of an old thread but did you end up keeping the YARO2? You mentioned you are limited to 96khz sampling rate with optical but the USB port doesn't offer anything higher that 96khz anyways - none of our speakers go past 96.
So far I have it in place. It works fine, but I'll be getting a stand alone DAC and amp unless I find something better.

USB on the Yaro goes up to 192khz. I'm not concerned about the sample rate so much as I bought a USB DAC that doesn't have a functioning USB port. That's the issue.

EDIT: Hmm. The manual says it only goes to 96khz like you said, but Windows (when it worked) let me choose 192 without issue and it worked well. Weird, but with the issues I've had with the USB port, it makes sense that Windows wouldn't get it's capabilities correct.
 
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panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
looks interesting, fakespot result isn't bad:
I saw that and it looks pretty nice. I still think I'm going to go separate since the two units I'm looking at are pretty reasonable and I should still have the ability to do an output for the sub. I'll update this thread when I get around to grabbing this stuff.
 
kantoliving

kantoliving

Enthusiast
I used an AIYIMA A07 during testing of the YU Passive 4" and 5.25" speakers. Awesome performance for the price. No hesitation to recommend their stuff (now that YARO2 is discontinued of course haha)
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
So I recently decided to dual boot Linux and I decided to plug the DAC in via USB while Linux was loaded and it worked without issue.

@kantoliving you know of a replacement Windows driver I could try? BSOD isn't promising, but if I can get at least a test driver it might help.

If that doesn't work, a new DAC and amp will be incoming shortly.
 
kantoliving

kantoliving

Enthusiast
All our products use the generic windows USB audio driver. If you're having issues a system restore to when it was working is usually the easiest way to solve the problem. You can also run System File Checker to see if the driver got corrupted or overwritten. Reformatting Windows is also an idea assuming it's not too much of a hassle. I am not super familiar with all this stuff so we're essentially at the end of the road for my support abilities.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
All our products use the generic windows USB audio driver. If you're having issues a system restore to when it was working is usually the easiest way to solve the problem. You can also run System File Checker to see if the driver got corrupted or overwritten. Reformatting Windows is also an idea assuming it's not too much of a hassle. I am not super familiar with all this stuff so we're essentially at the end of the road for my support abilities.
That's what I figured. The issues started with the new motherboard.

USB on linux works, but it's still buggy. It's actually starting to have issues with optical now which tells me it's just going out in general. Sucks, but it was good while it lasted.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Is it perchance an AMD board?
Yup. None of the BIOS updates have fixed squat. I've got other devices with issues too, but this one is directly related to my DAC/AMP. I plugged it into other PCs and they BSOD as well. Linux won't read it either so it isn't a Windows thing.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
So I got the new stuff yesterday, and I'm pretty happy so far.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-smsl-m100-dac.8842/




Good deal at $85. $10 off regular price on Amazon. Windows recognized this device without issue no matter what port I plugged it into, so I'm confident the other DAC is DOA. Plus, this has a nice ASIO drive that goes way up to an unnecessary 32bit/768khz sample rate. Also supports DSD up to DSD512. I'm just happy Plex and Tidal work perfectly fine with their respective desktop apps. Haven't gotten DSD to work properly yet though.

I had considered getting an MQA capable DAC, but didn't want @lovinthehd to disown me. That, and I couldn't care less and the price triples for that functionality. Sounds just fine letting the software do the decoding.

I also got an amp that was also nicely in my price range.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/aiyima-a07-tpa3255-review-amplifier.18984/




With how many devices there are running around on Amazon and everywhere else I decided to keep it simple and just go with something that had measurements so ASR was a logical choice to look. This little amp can get LOUD as hell with my overnight sensations. I can't even put the knob at 50% without it being silly.

Also, there is a stereo out that I'm using for the sub and it VERY much matters where the knob on the amp is positioned as to whether or not the output is too hot. I've got it pretty well dialed in, but will keep playing around.



So far I'm very happy. For around $165 my DAC/Amp got replaced with separates. Ooh fancy me. They really do sound very good for the money. Plus, not a huge foot print.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
So I got the new stuff yesterday, and I'm pretty happy so far.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-smsl-m100-dac.8842/




Good deal at $85. $10 off regular price on Amazon. Windows recognized this device without issue no matter what port I plugged it into, so I'm confident the other DAC is DOA. Plus, this has a nice ASIO drive that goes way up to an unnecessary 32bit/768khz sample rate. Also supports DSD up to DSD512. I'm just happy Plex and Tidal work perfectly fine with their respective desktop apps. Haven't gotten DSD to work properly yet though.

I had considered getting an MQA capable DAC, but didn't want @lovinthehd to disown me. That, and I couldn't care less and the price triples for that functionality. Sounds just fine letting the software do the decoding.

I also got an amp that was also nicely in my price range.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/aiyima-a07-tpa3255-review-amplifier.18984/




With how many devices there are running around on Amazon and everywhere else I decided to keep it simple and just go with something that had measurements so ASR was a logical choice to look. This little amp can get LOUD as hell with my overnight sensations. I can't even put the knob at 50% without it being silly.

Also, there is a stereo out that I'm using for the sub and it VERY much matters where the knob on the amp is positioned as to whether or not the output is too hot. I've got it pretty well dialed in, but will keep playing around.



So far I'm very happy. For around $165 my DAC/Amp got replaced with separates. Ooh fancy me. They really do sound very good for the money. Plus, not a huge foot print.
$85 for an USB DAC that is based on an Sabre ES9018Q2C chip, and can play 512 DSD? That is ridiculous, don't they have to pay the much increased tariff to import from China? Talk about competition...:D

I have never seen any build in DAC with even $5,000 integrated amp (Anthem STR can only play up to DSD128) Put it on the bench with the STR integrated my money is on this $85 SMSL that it would measure significantly better. Unbelievable!
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
$85 for an USB DAC that is based on an Sabre ES9018Q2C chip, and can play 512 DSD? That is ridiculous, don't they have to pay the much increased tariff to import from China? Talk about competition...:D

I have never seen any build in DAC with even $5,000 integrated amp (Anthem STR can only play up to DSD128) Put it on the bench with the STR integrated my money is on this $85 SMSL that it would measure significantly better. Unbelievable!
So far I'm very happy with it. Getting dsd to it has been a pain, but I can see in the driver that it's getting the proper signal. I only get LOUD static.

I suspect a configuration issue somewhere. That or a driver issue.

The fact that it's just a tiny box with so much processing capability is very impressive. Especially for the money.

The little amp is no slouch either. It would easily power more demanding speakers.

It was a large upgrade over what I had. DAC technology has increased significantly since I bought the unit that broke.
 
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