Entry level DAC advice

AndyCJ

New Member
I've been looking at setting up a laptop as a music center - and I've been looking around at DAC's that would improve the quality of the output.

I've got around $300 at the outside and I was wondering if the following 2 would be good?

$250 - usb only KingRex from Coem Audio - (http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/)

$312 - Beresford (http://i-hear.com.au/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=3).

I've read a few negative things about Stan Beresord from a while ago - but before that I had talked to the guy in AU selling the Beresford, and he seemed quite a standup guy (recommended ASIO4ALL to improve the digital stream coming into the DAC too).

I was wondering if anyone has heard either of these DAC's and could comment on them? Also, if anyone knows a bit more technically about these DAC's I'd appreciate that sort of advice also (I'm a bit of a newb to the audio stuff I'm affraid - sigh).

Cheers,
Andy
 
I got a Beresford TC-7520 and it has brought even my mp3 files back to life. But I heard he brought out a limited run of a souped up TC-7520 that is called the Beresford Caiman. I got the info from the UK What HIFI magazine forum, which promises to be doing a review on it. The early buyers all seem to be smiling from ear to ear.
I can't catch it on his international site though, so I have no idea how they got hold of one. It has the WM8716 DAC chip, LM4562NA opamps like in the new DAC1, and the PCM2902 USB DAC chip.
Somebody mentioned on a UK audio forum that they paid U$300 for theirs delivered. I am tempted:scratch2:.
 
I can't source a Numbers Cruncher here in Australia I'm affraid.

Might check out the supplier to see if the Caiman is available here? Probably out of my price range if it is anyhow!

Thou you can easily enough swap out the Opamp (or so I've read?!) - and I've looked at a couple of articles about rolling the Opamp at a later stage to improve the sound quality http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/beresford-tc7520-opamp-rolling-426598/
I was looking at the Fubar III also, but in all the reading I've done it's still trumped by the 7520.

This is a harder decision than I first thought.
 
Music Fidelity DAC

I am considering a similar venture, and Audio Advisor (www.audioadvisor.com) offers an interesting DAC from a well known source that you might be interested in:

Music Fidelity V-DAC...$299
- 24-bit/192hz upsampling
- coax, toslink, usb inputs

music_fid_vdac.jpg
 
Both the DacMagic and the V-DAC have as much as a following as the TC-7520. But headphone listeners have to add in the extra cost of a headamp.

Edit: I managed to contact the guy who claimed to have got a Caiman shipped for U$300. Turns out he bought it as a tax free export, sent to Singapore. Luckily for him Customs did not charge him any import duties. I am in the UK so I would have to pay sales tax (we call it VAT). I'll keep an eye on my September pay packet and decide then.
 
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Erg - the V-Dac is $500 in Australia. Looks good, but it's still a couple of hundred above the one's I'm looking at. I guess if I could stretch to get the V-Dac then I'd be better going the DacMagic at $700. Either way - I've only got $300 (and THAT's a stretch let me tell ya!)

If the DAC gets a high WAF then I may con a DacMagic yet!!
 
Thought I'd update this to say that I ended up with the Beresofrd DAC, and I got the Opamp upgrade that comes on their website as part of the order. Was pretty happy with that becasue I priced the chip at $40 from Tirna in the UK (via ebay). So I think the only difference between this and the Caiman mentioned above is that it doesn't have the 64bit chip.

Overall the quality seems fine, and the sound that comes out of the beresford seems very good to my ears. My MP3 sound as good as my duel dac CD player I have, and the FLAC sounds even better.

Overall it's not a massive jump up (or not that I can notice) -but it is awesome now I've got a media player PC knocking out the music - it's much more versatile than a CD player for sure.

I can't comment on the headphones section as I havn't tried that yet - but overall it's a very good buy for the money I think.
 
Thank you for the update. It is good your solution is working for you. I went down a different path and purchased a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy plug-in card for my laptop (it was on clearance sale, I couldn't pass it up)...

creative-labs-sound-blaster-audigy-2-zs-notebook-p_53776vb.png
 
Pretty sure the Beresford is based on this one (or at least used to be)
for $105 it is worth the chance

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/MCM-CUSTOM-AUDIO-50-7774---TC-7510-/50-7774#description

That looks like the OEM version of the TC-7510, which it was claimed contained upgrades spec'ed by Beresford. The manufacturer is here http://www.technolink.com.tw.

That said it's certainly a bang for the buck DAC for computer use. I noticed a small improvement over the squeezebox onboard DAC and a huge improvement over the onboard AC97 sound on my desktop.
 
I just bought a Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-09 (I think he still has a deal going at $300 shipped) and have it hooked up to my laptop. It sounds great, and it even has the headphone jack.

Here is some info on it: http://grantfidelity.com/site/Grant_Fidelity_Tube_DAC-09



Retro

Have you had a chance to try this with any other sources than your laptop? I am currently looking to build a music server for my setup and I am also interested in using this for playing CDs with my DVR-7000. Just curious.
 
Have you had a chance to try this with any other sources than your laptop? I am currently looking to build a music server for my setup and I am also interested in using this for playing CDs with my DVR-7000. Just curious.

Yes, I tried it in this system:

pa130109.jpg


I preferred the Music Hall DAC that is currently in that system for the better sound stage I get from it. Just so you know though, the Music Hall cost twice as much as the Grant Fidelity did.

The Grant Fidelity DAC is awesome with my computer system though, and the difference is significantly better than without it.




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I preferred the Music Hall DAC that is currently in that system for the better sound stage I get from it. Just so you know though, the Music Hall cost twice as much as the Grant Fidelity did.

The Grant Fidelity DAC is awesome with my computer system though, and the difference is significantly better than without it.

Retro

I find the DAC-09 awesome as a CD DAC also, and unbeatable in anything like this price range for driving a headphone.
 
I find the DAC-09 awesome as a CD DAC also, and unbeatable in anything like this price range for driving a headphone.

The Music Hall Tube DAC 25.2 has the headphone jack as well, and I did mention that the Music Hall was currently priced twice as high. Soon though, it will be priced only 50% more ($390 vs $595), so if you're going after the GF Tube DAC-09, you better get one quick.



Retro
 
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