[Wayne1]

I have been getting e-mails and phone calls asking me about the new crop of cheaper DACs on the market lately. I don't get out much to listen to everything available.

I have recently been able to listen to a couple of DACs thanks to the generosity of tabrink and Mike Garner of TweekGeek.com.

Both are more full featured DACs with headphone outputs. Mike lent me the DACMini by CEntrance and tabrink lent me his Grant Fidelity DAC-11.

The DACMini is more than twice as expensive as the DAC-11 and it shows in the parts used, the case quality and the sound. The DACmini is dynamic and VERY clean. This is a DAC that showcases accuracy over romance. This DAC would be perfect for studio monitoring. It hides nothing and glosses nothing over. I did try the DACmini with a linear power supply in place of the supplied switcher and far preferred the sound that way. To me, it had a deeper tighter low end with even more dynamics. While the highs are never harsh, the linear PS on the DAC sounded smoother.

For the money, if you are looking for a multi-purpose DAC and prefer a more analytical sound over the romantic tube sound, I would highly suggest this unit. Get a linear PS for it and it can run with DACs in the 2-3K range. I do prefer the sound of my modded EE DAC, but I am liking this one quite a bit. This would be great to use plugged into a laptop with a good set of headphones for late night listening.

The DAC 11 is $350.00 and looks it. The casework is very thin and has quite a resonance to it when tapped. Most of the parts are on one circuit board and are surface mounted. It offers multiple inputs, a very inexpensive volume control and a tube buffer. tabrink was very excited about this DAC, but he did tell me he uses it mostly for headphone listening.

I ran it in my system for about a week and found it fairly pleasant to listen to but it was certainly lacking the dynamics of the CEntrance. I decided to compare the DAC11 to an analog modded Touch I recently finished. The analog modded Touch costs $225.00 today and will go up to $250.00 on Feb. 1. The Touch was powered by a modded Jerome Industries PS with Bybee Music Rail.

I first connected the analog outputs of the Touch to the analog inputs of the DAC11. I ran the digital output of the Touch into the DAC11. This would let me compare the "sound" of the DAC11's DAC section to the sound of the modded Touch going through the buffer stage. In this comparison, I did prefer the sound of the modded Touch analog output over the digital output of the Touch going through the DAC11 D/A section. The analog output of the Touch had an extended low end and more defined, cleaner top end. The DAC11's low end sounded truncated and the top end was a bit "tizzy". The imaging was not as precise as the modded Touch.

I then ran the analog outputs of the modded Touch direct to my pre-amp and matched volumes. The same sort of differences I heard with the modded Touch into the DAC11 were emphasized in this comparison. The DAC11's low end was not as deep or tight as the modded Touch. Dynamics were lacking. The highs were rolled off in comparison. The modded Touch's sound was very compelling and I found myself tapping my foot along to the music. This was not the case when listening to the DAC11.

In my opinion, in my system, I found I preferred the sound of the analog modded Touch, when using a modded Jerome Industries power supply with Bybee Music Rails, over using the same Touch into the Grant Fidelity DAC-11. To my mind the analog mods represent a greater return on money spent. There is not need to purchase a digital cable and have another item in your rack.

The CEntrance DACmini is far better built than the DAC11 and costs over twice as much. The sound is more on the analytical side, but it does offer more dynamics compared to the sound of the analog modded Touch.

My favorite outboard DAC is still the modded EE MiniMax DAC. I do have tabrink's permission to look into some mods to his DAC.

[Fredly]

OK, just enjoying some ski time in Ellicottville NY and saw this post. Two things.

1) Wayne.... I hope that's my Modded Touch you are listening to. 

2) I'm 50, and I have a feeling that a modded Touch, IPad and proper line conditioning/power supply (...and I can't stress this enough), can equal, or potentially, surpass many complicated (read: expensive) setups. (dac/player)

Is there an advantage to the "smallest signal path" theory?

But....that is my opinion 

Cheers, Fred in Canada

[bprice2]

The CEntrance DACmini is far better built than the DAC11 and costs over twice as much. The sound is more on the analytical side, but it does offer more dynamics compared to the sound of the analog modded Touch.

Wayne,

I'm curious if your analog modded Touch was also modded via the Soundcheck software mods.  If not, it might be interesting to compare your Touch with the software mods with both analog out and digital out.  I bring this up, because some over at the Squeezebox forum seem to indicate that greater benefit can be had using the Soundcheck mods on a Touch's analog outs vs digital to an external dac. 

Every day I'm still amazed at how good my Touch is with your hardware mods combined with Soundcheck's software mods.

Thanks,

Brett

[Wayne1]

Brett,

This particular Touch and listening test was not used with the Soundcheck mods. I have mentioned them in the past and I do think they make a very nice improvement in both analog and digital output.

I do feel that an analog modded Touch with a good linear power supply will sound better than most of the inexpensive DACs for under $500.00. Once you get into the $800.00-$1200.00 range of today's DACs, the power supplies and analog output parts and circuit will deliver a sound that most would prefer over the Touch's analog outputs.

I feel that is the current sweet spot for DACs today. You would have to go up to the $4,000.00-$5,000.00 range to get a significant improvement in sound over the $1,000.00 DACs.

[jrebman]

Hi Wayne,

As a new owner of a CEntrance DACMini, I'm interested in what would be a decent, cost-effective power supply for this unit.  Looks like anything from 9 to 19 volts and about 1A should do the trick.

I plan to get this dac and thee rest of the system around it setup very soon and then break it all in with pretty much stock parts/powersupplies, etc. and then will look into upgrades.

BTW, I got the variable output mod so I can use it as a digital/analog preamp and keep the system box count and cable count to a minimum and will probably feed both the digital spdif output and analog output of the Virtue Piano into the mini, use the usb connection to tthe mac mini sitting underneath, and may add the airport express with optical connection later on -- just for background and internet radio listening.

Glad to hear your opinion of this dac,, and the sonics are just what I was looking for to pair up with some warmish amps and speakers -- should all balance out very nicely.

Hope you're well,

Jim

[InfernoSTi]

Hi Jim,

It's nice to see you here. I'm looking forward to hearing Wayne's thoughts on your questions. 

All the best,
John

P.S. take a look at this post Jim:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=100008.0

[Wayne1]

Hello Jim,

I do feel the CEntrance DACmini would be best served by an 18 volt power supply with far more than 1 amp.

10 amps should be about right. Using it for headphones does require a bit of current drive.

The power supply I modded for use for a MacMini is what I use on the CEntrance I borrowed. I felt it really improved the low end and cleaned up the highs and imaging.

John did provide a link to a description of it.

Please contact me if you might be interested in one.

[jrebman]

Hi Wayne,

Hi Wayne,

I'm sure I'll want one of these sooner or later, so I will be contacting you at some point, but my piggy bank has to recover first.

Can you just give me the overall dimensions of this unit?  Rack space is at a preemium but that will get a bit better when I finish the stereo amp that will replace the monoblocks.

Sure wish I could nab that Teres from you too!

Take care,

Jim

[Wayne1]

Jim,

The power supply case is 5" H x 7" W x 8" D.

Thanks,
Wayne