[RAW]

Getting older now 14 my daughter has got the music bug.
As I have complete Mac home and a mini as the server she would like to rock out in her room with her Mac book.
What DAC you recommend on the cheap for the kids room.Power not to worry I have a few amps around she has lots to pick from to run.

Less than 75.00 starting her off

Thanks
Al

[roscoeiii]

Hmmm, under $75 is tricky, but there is a $100 Schiit USB DAC, or the first generation Audioquest Dragonflys are being cleared out at $100.

[jackman]

Is suggest a dragonfly because it's very portable and it is a headphone amp. Lastly, you may want to just purchase the $10 program for macs I think it's called bitperfect. Haven't tried it but I've read positive comments.

Also, the new Odac/headphone DAC headphone amp is a pretty looking combo from jdslabs. Good luck.

[Doublej]

There's a couple of threads on C&C on this topc.

Here's one:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=124584.0

Here's a few models around $50

http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=62_73

[TF1216]

Here are a few more options

http://www.head-fi.org/t/696401/giant-list-of-sub-200-portable-dacs-w-their-chips-price

[Rclark]

Get her an Xda-2. It will last more than a few years. They're $399 I think, not $75, but you get multiple inputs and outputs, a slick remote, anti jitter, and preamp control with fine grain volume attenuation, lossless.

And they look cool.

I'm running one with Ncores and it sounds fabulous.

[JLM]

Just use Audioengine A2+ powered speakers with built-in DAC ($250/pair, F3 = 65 Hz, and only 6" x 4"x 5.75").

[JohnR]

The man said under $75.... the diymehifi options are apparently great for the price, another one is Fiio (forget the specific model number, in the the 30s from eg PE)

[jtwrace]

Getting older now 14 my daughter has got the music bug.
As I have complete Mac home and a mini as the server she would like to rock out in her room with her Mac book.
What DAC you recommend on the cheap for the kids room.Power not to worry I have a few amps around she has lots to pick from to run.

Less than 75.00 starting her off

Thanks
Al

Maybe a DIY project that you can do together?  Do an ODAC at $69 it will be hard to beat plus you get to teach a new skill and spend some quality time together.     Add the $14.99 case or use any type of case and you're set.

[adydula]

jwtrace...

that's the O2 amp, not the ODAC.....

The ODAC is not available in kit form....and its $99 at JDS Labs and needs a case etc....
The fully assembled one is more like $150.

Alex

[jackman]

Sorry, I missed the budget part. I'd still get the Schiit or the dragonfly because they are only a few bucks over your budget and I aspect they will have much better resale than a no name Chinese DAC. The dragonfly looks like a great deal for a hundred bucks.

[RAW]

Thanks everyone for the input I knew the info could be found here.

At this time I have a old set of my HT2O in here room but I see a new project on the way soon.


Thanks

Al

[jackman]

Hi Al,
Here is the info on bitperfect.  I don't have a max but it looks pretty cool and is only $10.

http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bitperfect.html?m=0

[Folsom]

I like the 1543 DAC's... Very musical.

USB

[charmerci]

I like the 1543 DAC's... Very musical.

USB

I personally avoid stuff shipped from China.

I bought a DAC/amp for $55 and a couple of months later the DAC would make loud popping noises. I had someone check all the internal connections for $20 and it still does it. What's the point of spending a $20-50 item back to China for $35????

[Letitroll98]

I personally avoid stuff shipped from China.

I bought a DAC/amp for $55 and a couple of months later the DAC would make loud popping noises.

No disrespect meant whatsoever, but it was a $55 purchase.  I would take a wild guess that no quality assurance is done on these units and the failure rate is surely somewhere around 5-6% (very high in other words).  You can get a tested unit through a US supplier (most all of them at this price are having them made in the Far East) and pay the price, likely 100-200% more.  For that you could buy two units and odds on that one of them works, a strategy employed by several members here on the C&C circle, mostly to avoid delays in ordering another unit.  If you get two working units, sell or gift the other.

Buying very low cost units from overseas is risky, you're correct, but the dollar amount is small so the total risk is small.  I find when you get above $200 or so the failure rate goes way down, but that's not the price we're talking about in this thread.

[charmerci]

No disrespect meant whatsoever, but it was a $55 purchase.  I would take a wild guess that no quality assurance is done on these units and the failure rate is surely somewhere around 5-6% (very high in other words).  You can get a tested unit through a US supplier (most all of them at this price are having them made in the Far East) and pay the price, likely 100-200% more.  For that you could buy two units and odds on that one of them works, a strategy employed by several members here on the C&C circle, mostly to avoid delays in ordering another unit.  If you get two working units, sell or gift the other.

Buying very low cost units from overseas is risky, you're correct, but the dollar amount is small so the total risk is small.  I find when you get above $200 or so the failure rate goes way down, but that's not the price we're talking about in this thread.

Yeah, I understand that now!  But at the time, I was unemployed and I wasn't going to buy another one with money worries. Nonetheless, I just wanted to throw that caveat out there.

[jackman]

I agree regarding cheap Chinese direct goods. Plus, you can buy inexpensive stuff from Schiit,
or a DAC from a company with a good warrantee like Audioquest Dragonfly. If they don't work, you can send them back. There are some reputable Chinese companies but I never buy Chinese direct because it's too big a hassle to return stuff.

Lastly, and unrelated to the info above I am really liking the Odac and Jriver.  For a low price it sounds great and was easy to set up.

[Folsom]

All the cheap stuff I have tried was fine.

Do I prefer made in USA? Yes, so long as we are on agreement for what I am looking for (including a price factor).

[matt_garman]

I like the 1543 DAC's... Very musical.

USB

FWIW, I have a "Muse Mini TDA1543 x4" on order from China via Ebay.  There are many sellers selling this DAC, here is but one of many examples.  Usually $50 to $60 shipped.  Looks like you can even order it via Amazon.  Note that I haven't even received mine yet, so this isn't an endorsement, but merely a suggestion.  Here is a really long thread over at Head-Fi that discusses this DAC in great detail, including some simple (and some complex) mods that can be done to tweak it for reportedly improved performance.

Just as a side commentary (arguably a rant ): I spent a long time reading DAC reviews, looking for the "best" one in my budget.  More time than I care to admit.  But I noticed a consistent trend in reading various forums about DACs, and it goes something like this:

• You start with a budget, say $75, and pinpoint a DAC that looks promising, the ValueDAC 1.3 (these are all made-up examples)
• You scour forums for user commentary on the ValueDAC 1.3, and find generally positive comments, but a couple people say, "If you stretch your budget up to $90, you can get the SweetDAC 2.3, and it's so much better than the ValueDAC 1.3."
• So you say, well, if it's that much better, maybe I can stretch the budget a bit.
• You read all forum posts about the SweetDAC 2.3, and find a lot of positive comments, but somewhere out there, someone makes a passionate post along the lines of, "I bought the SweetDAC 2.3 based on all the good reviews, and really wanted to like it, but just couldn't get into it.  So I spent a little more, $125, on the UberDAC 3.0, and it's literally the best thing that's ever happened to my system!"
• You read about the SweetDAC 3.0, and wow, a lot of great reviews... except for a few people saying it's definitely worth upping the budget to $150 for the UberDAC 2.9... which by the way is made in the USA by a famous veteran from the industry, so you know it's better.
• ...

See where this is going?  At least in the sub $1000 DAC arena where I play, there's always one or more people on any given forum trying to convince you to spend just a little bit more.

I started with a budget around $200, and after literally weeks of reading about DACs every chance I could, I was contemplating $500 DACs... or this formerly $700 one being phased out, so it's now only $350, whatever... fortunately, I took a step back and said, wait a minute, these online reviews aren't really that helpful.  Fun to read, yes, but unless the product is a total turd, you'll find 75--85% of mentions to be generally favorable, maybe 5--10% of the people who make negative comments, and the remaining 5--10% saying "it's not bad, but if you just increase your budget a little bit, you can get XYZ which is so much better."

My final conclusion was this: either go el-cheapo from Ebay/China, or limit myself strictly to used items.  With the cheapo stuff, I figure, if it sucks, I write off the loss and move on (or DIY hack on it, which I also enjoy).  If I like it, well, problem solved!  Somebody's gotta comb through the cheap stuff, looking for the "diamond in the rough" like the tpa3110 and tpa3116 amps.

With the used stuff, worst-case, I can turn around and re-sell it, and probably make most of my money back.  If you're buying from dealers or reputable online stores, you might be able to employ a similar strategy with legitimate returns to the store or manufacturer.  Just be wary of shipping costs and/or re-stocking fees.

In the end, I went with the cheap China approach partially because I got impatient (didn't want to wait for a deal to show up on ebay or craigslist or whatever), but also because the reading I did convinced me that the "old school" NOS DACs (like the TDA1543) have a different sound than the modern, generally more prominent sigma-delta style DACs.  There's definitely a debate about which is better, but I just had to see if I could even hear the difference.  Who knows, maybe my system isn't even good enough to demonstrate subtle differences in DACs.

I think part of the "problem" is that the DAC market seems to be (1) increasing in size, and (2) evolving/improving rapidly.  So we're constantly bombarded by more DAC models overall, and more "new and improved" models, at every price level... they are yet another consumer electronics device, like computers, tablets and smart phones; we're used to being subject to an upgrade cycle.  And I think folks naturally up their budget a bit when they upgrade, so it's inevitable to find countless cases of "I upgraded from ABC to XYZ and noticed a huge improvement."

Ok, I feel better now, rant over.