HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Fretless wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 8:28 pm I'm in the middle of a re-think about the various DAC's I have in use. There is a reshuffle in progress and a couple of interesting surprises.

The PSU has far more impact than I thought.

Never underestimate the power of a power supply

Indeed.

You'd be surprised just how PSU dependant the Pi is too.

Funny mine sounds identical on USB power, lifepo batteries, 18650 batteries, cheap linear psu or a 2 stage discrete high current job.

Damn cheap DAC wouldn't work at all last night. No matter what I tried. Ended up putting the Edirol back in.

Now considering getting a Topping D30. Several other interesting devices on Aliexpress as well, including DAC's from Teradak which I've been looking at for a while

I think it depends on the dac as to power supply sensitivity. It would appear that more modern dacs seem to be more immune. The Topping is one of them and when my geriatric 'ton-up' Digit went awol, I considered one as it performs so well for not much money. Well under a ton and it makes many 'audiophile' models costing more look incredibly overpriced.

Totally exasperated by the cheapy Chinese DAC's refusal to co-operate - but intrigued by the multitude of devices available on AliExpress I have just ordered one of these:



WEILIANG (Breeze) AUDIO dual PCM1794 decoder 192K/24bit AK4118 interface

This is a mains-powered unit with a hefty-looking transformer and (if you believe the blurb) a serious amount of quality components. A simple design only running SP/DIF input from coax and optical (no USB).
Weiliang appear to be a company that builds a lot of OEM circuit boards and this unit is their own in-house design and production. Direct selling, no middle-men (sounds familiar?)
And all this for approximately the same price as a cheapy DAC plus LPSU (under 80 euro inc. P&P).

Probably take a month or so to arrive.

Fretless wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:26 am Toslink cable - grabbed the first one I could find. Sometimes it's useful to have boxes of old hifi bits around - you never know what you'll be needing. But I do have a Profigold Oxypure OXYA5601 Toslink somewhere. Put that in place and the sound of this modest little installation just opened up and filled out to an impressive degree.



These Interconnects from cheapo, mass-market cable company Profigold were a major find for me. For under 30 quid these optical links are the only ones that rival a good coax cable in terms of jitter and clarity. The OCC coax model from this line, OXYA4801, is quite simply the best digital interlink I have heard at any price (and it's also under 30 GBP at Amazon). Because these cables aren't from an expensive esoteric audio company they have absolutely NO credibility in snobby HiFi circles - they just do the job and sound amazing.

Here on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profigold-Perf ... 2403268031
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profigold-Perf ... B004VS9S7I

So I have assembled a thoroughly enjoyable little Cube(tte)-based Network stereo in the bedroom. Constructed entirely from stuff that I had stashed away and lying about.
Now that's what I call music!

+1 to Profigold. I have used the Profigold Digital Coaxial PGD481 and then later the PROA4801.

I only upgraded to the SSP (MK2) Digital earlier this year.

Profigold's Oxypure OXYA series are their.top of the range with OCC copper cables and medical-grade glass-fibre.

The OCC wires have no inter-crystal breaks in the copper structure and so don't affect the datastream in terms of creating jitter.

Mass-production volumes allows them to make 'expensive' interconnects for a budget price.

My early attempts to get good sound out of computers were proving to be reasonably successful - but not really Hifi - and the few standalone DAC's that were available were very expensive specialist devices. Until the Musical Fidelity V-DAC came along....



A little black box at an attractively accessible price. USB, coax and optical inputs. Now my proper digital music expeditions could begin. With a CD player hooked up along with my new Onkyo digital Ipod dock things got going. Finally digital sound had a chance of rivalling the almighty analogue SQ.

The V series from MF was modular and expandable, a 'proper' V-PSU was added and a V-Link that improved the USB capabilities of the setup. Then all of these components were, effectively, combined in the not-unreasonably-priced M1DAC. So I got one. (The V-DAC set I loaned out to a friend - he never gave it back he was so happy with it).



The M1DAC is a lovely-sounding unit with a smooth, liquid refinement. It won't rock your world but it has given me many, many hours of listening pleasure. Currently it is in my main headphone installation with a Schiit Magni3 headphone amp and AQ NightHawk's and gives a wide, detailed soundstage with plenty of fine detail and dynamics.

Still waiting for my DAC to arrive from the mysterious Orient so I have been looking around on AliExpress and am intrigued by some of the devices that are on there.

It does 'appear' that some of the expensive chips/components that are used in high-end audio equipment assembled for Western companies is also finding its way into inexpensive, self-designed units made by local businesses there. But are they the genuine article or knock-off rip-offs?

I suppose there is only one way to find out.

There is this: a single-input (coax only) NOS DAC for 150 euro



Or this with 16x TDA1543 chips for 130 euro



And the Topping D30 which gives you DSD playback for 100 euro (even less in the Sale there)



AND this mega-DSD thingy in several versions costing up to 300 euro ...



It's not even summer and my Christmas list is already full!