MODI 3 Questions

[PENG]

The reliability is a concern, plus I have read different statements regarding the background noise. So not pulling the trigger yet. Going to do some more research.

Did I mention I have a cheap one, the S.M.S.L. SU-8 10th anniversary version? It has been trouble free for more than 6 months now, plays everything and heard no hum no hiss. Tried both RCA and XLR, same difference.

 

[HTfreak2004]

To me, such disappointment would likely apply to most integrated amps people talked about on this forum. I am sure I missed a few but I am not aware of too many, may be just a few, integrated amps that have a flag ship DAC chip onboard such as Sabre's ES9018, 9018, or 9038, AKM's AK4490, 4493, 4497, 4499, Cirrus Logic's CS43198, TI1794.

Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha's flag ship AVR, and Marantz flag ship AVC do have either near or ex flag ship AKM or Sabre DAC onboard.

If someone mentioned this on forums, integrated amp owners (some sensitive ones.. would typically counter the importance of implementation. Surely implementation matters, but if the implementation schemes are typically better in expensive integrated amps, why not go an extra inch to "implement" at least near flag ship DAC chips in an integrated amp?

That’s usually the result of a product $.01 less than a certain figure.

You know $1999.99 just sounds better than $2000.00 . A major marketing scheme. If they put the better DAC inside their integrated unit they lose the justification to sell the next model up for. $2999.00

 

[Pogre]

You should try some cryogenically treated cables...

 

[HTfreak2004]

You should try some cryogenically treated cables...

Aren’t the cryo cables the ones they used in Atlantis?

Man those must be amazing if they past the forward to our Day and Age

 

[Truthslayer]

Did I mention I have a cheap one, the S.M.S.L. SU-8 10th anniversary version? It has been trouble free for more than 6 months now, plays everything and heard no hum no hiss. Tried both RCA and XLR, same difference.

Thanks for the heads up Peng, I really like the fact it has balanced connections. Been doing some research on it. Seems about 90% are happy with it.
Does it require any special drivers to be downloaded, or does windows automatically recognize it ?
So far it's looking like this or the topping D50s.

 

[PENG]

Thanks for the heads up Peng, I really like the fact it has balanced connections. Been doing some research on it. Seems about 90% are happy with it.
Does it require any special drivers to be downloaded, or does windows automatically recognize it ?
So far it's looking like this or the topping D50s.

It's been a while but I have only saved the "XMOS_USBAudio_v4.47.0.exe" file in my DAC folder so I would assume that's the only driver I installed.

I guess it would be a safe assumption that Mac OS would recognize it without drivers but not Windows.

I would think Topping's should be reliable too, just that I don't know as I have no experience with any of their. I have owned quite a few DACs, probably about 10 and have been lucky with all of them, hope it remains that way. It makes little sense to me to go with an integrated amp with DAC build in as it sort out defeat the "separate..." thing and if something goes wrong you would have more to loose, obviously, let alone obsolesce, rendering the build in DAC more or less useless. In others, may as well use a cheap outdated AVR.