ud120 portable dac

[mr.rice]

I was looking around on the forums for anything mentioning the neat, little dac offered by stoner acoustics, a small start up company from Malaysia. It uses a chip from Texas instruments that is found in far more expensive products (i found one for over $200). The best part about it is that it only costs usd $69, and is as small as a USB thumb drive, making for the perfect portable audiophile setup. It is amazing how little light has been shed on this product, and it would be awesome if some more people knew about it.

Website: http://stoneracoustics.blogspot.com/

Review: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/dacs/ud120-usb-dac-mini-review

[creatip123]

Actually, a DAC chip is never very pricey. For example, a $880 Astell&Kern AK120 (http://www.amazon.com/Astell-Kern-Mastering-Quality-Portable/dp/B00D648BDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415862546&sr=8-1&keywords=ak120) uses Wolfson WM8740, the exact same chip as used in a $170 Fiio X3, or the E10 (older version), last retail at $70 or so.

 

When bought in bulk, I bet the chip costs around $5 or so.

 

It's the implementation of the chip that determines whether the product sounds good or not.

[mr.rice]

Either way. It's been getting good reviews from a budget standpoint compared to other budget dacs.

[mr.rice]

However, I did not know this. Thanks for letting me know.