Looking for first DAC

From what I see there are five sellers with Prime shipping, and they all have the same price as Shenzhenaudio. So no Mass Drop discount, but at least it wouldn't be a long wait. But if there are any MQA DACs at a good price I'd consider getting one of them instead

I read somewhere, perhaps the Audiophile Reddit, where someone recommended to buy via Shenzhen to avoid a possible counterfeit unit. Who knows, however.
 
Well after doing some more digging and considering my impatience, I'm thinking of getting the SMSL Sanskrit 6th. A lot of people love it, and it has extra capabilities that I can explore in the future such as DSD. Will I ever use that? Maybe not, but it's cool that it's there and it seems built with quality, using good caps like the Topping. If no one can suggest a reason why it wouldn't be a good purchase, I'll probably order it today or tomorrow :)
 
Does the 6 support DSD? Smsl M8a drop is active, if you can stretch your budget a bit more that is a slightly better option.
 
I thought it did, I guess I was thinking of the D30. An extra $75 to get that one that's slightly better isn't really that appealing to me at the moment... I don't have the money for it at the moment with other bills I have to take care of and the drop ends before my next paycheck. And frankly at this point, my brain is getting kind of fried and I want to let it go to "sleep mode" over the weekend - this last week I've been spending all my spare time researching DACs as well as various tools for my new job so I would get the best bang for the buck when I bought them after work last night. The DSD feature isn't really important to me, I'll probably be looking to upgrade with a Tidal compatible/MQA enabled DAC eventually anyway.
 
Those are for more headphones than a home audio setup right? I can't find much about using it for 2ch, will using an AUX 3.5mm to RCA degrade sound quality?

Nothing wrong with 3.5mm to RCA at all.

Also the Dragonfly won't do DSD.

But one day I might try one out for laptop use. Sure is small.
If you read reviews Its brother the Dragonfly Red is a step up in SQ, but also twice the $$.
They seem well regarded.

Eric
 
Omitting the MQA and SPDIF inputs there are other options like Massdrop X Grace SDAC for $79.99 that measures pretty well.
 
i'm using windows media player on my computer into musical fidelity m1dac
i did try j.river and amarra but had a problem adding music on portable hd to the playlist was a problem
with the windows player now i can the folder of a group or album to play
i have close to 1000 albums on a couple of hd
the windows media player is 24/96
 
Hi, I'm looking at getting my first DAC. Once I get it I'll probably be getting Tidal to go lossless, right now for digital files I'm just using Spotify premium... Which kind of saddens me with the rest of my system. It doesn't sound bad, I just want to get the best out of what I have. Right now I'm streaming from my Surface 3tablet headphone jack to Sansui Eight as preamp to Heathkit AA 1600 power amp to Tannoy 615 speakers. There is an Arcam rDac listed nearby that seems well liked, but I'm wondering if there's anything better out there in the sub-250 range. Obviously I want a USB input, and a coax input for my CD player would be nice too, but not necessary. I know the Arcam is older, so I don't know if technology has advanced enough to where something a couple years old but used would set me up with either a comparable DAC for less or a better one for the same price. I've noticed a lot of people like the basic ones from Schiit and Topping for being priced low and having decent SQ.
Any thoughts? Thanks

For standard streaming you should be good with what you have now. External DAC only make sense if you are going to play downloaded files with many in high-res formats. But then you will need to spend $1000 and more on DAC.

To play files start with buying JRiver software and getting rid of iTunes altogether.
 
Well after doing some more digging and considering my impatience, I'm thinking of getting the SMSL Sanskrit 6th. A lot of people love it, and it has extra capabilities that I can explore in the future such as DSD. Will I ever use that? Maybe not, but it's cool that it's there and it seems built with quality, using good caps like the Topping. If no one can suggest a reason why it wouldn't be a good purchase, I'll probably order it today or tomorrow :)
I have a Sanskrit 6 and really like it. To me, it sounded better than the D30. (But to be fair, the D30 unit I got may not have been 100%. I ended up sending it back. And for the most part, I'm a Topping fan.)
 
I went with the Dragonfly, it'll be here in a couple days. I figure while there are several other DACs that are better in normal application, having one that uses the proprietary MQA software would be advantageous since I'll be using it for Tidal only. I'll be keeping my eye out for a better DAC that has higher sampling rates along with MQA capabilities in the future, but I'm hoping the Dragonfly will satisfy me for the time being.
 
^I have the Dragonfly Red and I keep coming back to it after trying out other DACs. I haven’t used it for streaming or MQA (a firmware update allows the Dragonfly to play MQA files) but it’s a great little DAC and deserves the praise it gets.
 
Well I'm happy to know Tidal is so easy to use with DACS! After much review, I think I'm going to go with the Topping D30. I've noticed occasional longevity problems with the power supply and a couple other things, but other than that it seems pretty solid. I like how the DAC X6 is plug and play with Windows, but it seems to have a lower USB sampling rate and more noise. As far as installing a driver for the Topping, from what I gather the driver is a piece of software I download from their website to allow use with Windows on my Surface 3 tablet, yes? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Hopefully Tidal catches up with Spotify with the connect feature, but until then I don't mind having to control everything with my tablet. The CCA seems a good choice for the living room setup since it's more casual listening, I just need to look into it more
Just to let you know, I've got an X6 and the "noise floor" that ASR measures is non existent to human hearing. I think it's a great little DAC and it works with Android as well. I'm aware the Topping measures better, but it's getting into measurements that are so far out there as to be negligible. Anyway, figured I'd give my 2 cents. Hope you like whatever you get!...which was apparently the Dragonfly. I stayed away from that due to Audioquests (IMO) snake oil cables. Hope you like it though.
 
I went with the Dragonfly, it'll be here in a couple days. I figure while there are several other DACs that are better in normal application, having one that uses the proprietary MQA software would be advantageous since I'll be using it for Tidal only. I'll be keeping my eye out for a better DAC that has higher sampling rates along with MQA capabilities in the future, but I'm hoping the Dragonfly will satisfy me for the time being.


Hard to say what's better, a better DAC that you can only use with the Tidal's software MQA decoding, or a lesser DAC that supports MQA proper.
3. When comparing TIDAL software MQA decoding with hardware decoding from the Mytek Brooklyn, the output is in fact very very similar. Sure, the Brooklyn hardware/firmware decode does seem more "accurate" than the TIDAL software decode, but I'm just not impressed that I hear a difference.

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/02/comparison-hardware-decoded-mqa-using.html
 
Well I got the Dragonfly but so far I have only been able to test it on my AKG headphones, which are a lower end model. Even with them there was a noticeable difference from just using the headphone jack - the sound stage opened up, the sound was fuller, and details were much more apparent. I expect a part of this(fuller sound) could be achieved with a designated headphone amp, but that's not what I was aiming for. That being said, I'm curious what a regular solid DAC could do for me, and now that I've gotten a couple checks from my new job (and getting paid more what I'm worth), I have a bit of money I could put toward one. The drop for the recommended SMSL M8A is active again, and I like what info I've read about it. I think I'm going to order it today, the chip is upgraded from the M8 and it's list of capabilities is extremely high. While some people say the D30 is almost as good for less money, I'm one of those people who hate "wondering" what I could be missing out on (hence wanting to buy a different DAC). It's either that, or the Nuforce DAC 80 which caught my eye at an extra 70 bucks if anyone has thoughts on that one. But I would also like to get one of the marantz 7 clone tube amps to run between the DAC and my Heathkit amp, and that's almost half the money I would need for it. I plan on getting my Tannoys hooked back up over the weekend to listen to the Dragonfly through them
 
Well I got the Dragonfly but so far I have only been able to test it on my AKG headpho
nes, which are a lower end model. Even with them there was a noticeable difference from just using the headphone jack - the sound stage opened up, the sound was fuller, and details were much more apparent. I expect a part of this(fuller sound) could be achieved with a designated headphone amp, but that's not what I was aiming for. That being said, I'm curious what a regular solid DAC could do for me, and now that I've gotten a couple checks from my new job (and getting paid more what I'm worth), I have a bit of money I could put toward one. The drop for the recommended SMSL M8A is active again, and I like what info I've read about it. I think I'm going to order it today, the chip is upgraded from the M8 and it's list of capabilities is extremely high. While some people say the D30 is almost as good for less money, I'm one of those people who hate "wondering" what I could be missing out on (hence wanting to buy a different DAC). It's either that, or the Nuforce DAC 80 which caught my eye at an extra 70 bucks if anyone has thoughts on that one. But I would also like to get one of the marantz 7 clone tube amps to run between the DAC and my Heathkit amp, and that's almost half the money I would need for it. I plan on getting my Tannoys hooked back up over the weekend to listen to the Dragonfly through them

The D30 is very easy to like. No filters or other things to mess around with, just a clean neutral output.
And XMOS USB really works and sounds great.

Eric
 
The D30 is very easy to like. No filters or other things to mess around with, just a clean neutral output.
And XMOS USB really works and sounds great.

Eric
I had thought about the Topping but had seen issues about using it with Windows 10 which is my OS. However, I decided to look at what people on Massdrop were saying about the M8A and it seems like there's a fair amount of problems to be fixed before I'd be comfortable buying one considering that any problems after 30 days aren't covered by Massdrop. I was looking at comments on the Topping and it seems like the main problem with it is software and firmware related to Windows 10 and the drivers available for the D30. But after reading every comment, it looks like if you have the Creators update for 10 like I do, then it shouldn't be a problem. Also a couple people said their drivers for their M8s also worked for the Topping in Windows 10. So it looks like I'm going to get the Topping after all. I'm thinking of getting it off Amazon so that it's "fulfilled" by them... I can get it in a couple days and don't have to worry about anything fishy. A little more than Massdrop but I can get it sooner and insure it with a protection plan too :)
 
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