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What do you guys recommend for a desktop DSD 256 capable DAC (non headphone)?

marsexpress
By marsexpress
in Audio
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Hi,

I want to have my question answered quickly, because i want to make a big surprise for my gf birthday. She is very into music, but she has like a big chunk of her music in DSD format. I want to buy her a new desktop DAC, because the old one doesn't supported DSD 256. I want to buy a good DAC for a maximum of 300$. What do you recommend for that amount of money with xu208 usb decoder? I heard that the AK4497 and AK4499, ESS9038Pro are one of the best chips out there. If needed i'm willing to do some DIY to save money?.

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Posted
45 minutes ago, Portik Tamas said:

Hi,

I want to have my question answered quickly, because i want to make a big surprise for my gf birthday. She is very into music, but she has like a big chunk of her music in DSD format. I want to buy her a new desktop DAC, because the old one doesn't supported DSD 256. I want to buy a good DAC for a maximum of 300$. What do you recommend for that amount of money with xu208 usb decoder? I heard that the AK4497 and AK4499, ESS9038Pro are one of the best chips out there. If needed i'm willing to do some DIY to save money?.

If you can find it for sale, an SMSL SU-8 should fit the bill nicely.

LTT's Resident Porsche fanboy and nutjob Audiophile.

 

Main speaker setup is now;

 

Mini DSP SHD Studio -> 2x Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC's (fed by AES/EBU, one feeds the left sub and main, the other feeds the right side) -> 2x Neumann KH420 + 2x Neumann KH870

 

(Having a totally seperate DAC for each channel is game changing for sound quality)

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6 minutes ago, Derkoli said:

If you can find it for sale, an SMSL SU-8 should fit the bill nicely.

Thank you ?

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Posted (edited)
On 2/20/2020 at 3:52 PM, Portik Tamas said:

Thank you ?

With that you get balanced outs and a remote control for cheap. The new version is coming out soon though, so I wouldn't go with that. And don't be fixated on chipset, since the implementation matters much more. Another that comes to mind is the SMSL M300, which is newer. The problem with that is no auxiliary usb port for power, so the usb port for data transfer gotta be pumping decent juice power wise. From there, I'd consider the DX7 as a step up. Now... if you reeeally wanna be the boyfriend of the year, RME ADI-2 for delta sigma or Denafrips ARES II for R2R.

Edited by HumdrumPenguin
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