Anyone know anything about this USB DAC?

kfr01 · « **on:** 26 Dec 2005, 05:28 am »

http://www.aqvox.de/products.html

It looks pretty good, uses its own power. Balanced outs.

Does anybody know anything about the sound quality?

Sintz · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Dec 2005, 07:46 pm »

Looks nice.
Selectable dither, bit depth, and sampling rates.
Also has balanced outputs (which I'd be using).

I'm also interested, but don't see any US distributers, pricelists, or specs.

Anyone?

Loftprojection · « **Reply #2 on:** 7 Mar 2006, 10:39 pm »

Go to "computer as source" or "dedicated source" sections at www.head-fi.com, everybody is talking about this DAC there, there is even some showdown of this DAC against several others like the Benchmark DAC1, Channel Island, etc...

For what it's worth, it has very good comments.

kfr01 · « **Reply #3 on:** 7 Mar 2006, 11:17 pm »

Excellent! Thank you.

Karl

studley · « **Reply #4 on:** 7 Mar 2006, 11:51 pm »

USB input is 1.1 not 2, which doesn't inspire confidence. Also, I suspect it uses USB to spdif rather than USB to 12S. Anybody know for sure?

Jon L · « **Reply #5 on:** 8 Mar 2006, 03:44 am »

Quote from: studley

USB input is 1.1 not 2, which doesn't inspire confidence. Also, I suspect it uses USB to spdif rather than USB to 12S. Anybody know for sure?

Yes, it uses USB to spdif, and it is USB1.1, which is plenty for 44.1 kHz, which is what you want anyway SQ-wise.

AQVox is a great-sounding DAC and an absolute bargain; you do need to order direct from the manufacturer with money-back guarantee if you don't like it.

I prefer it to the stock Benchmark, and I personally prefer it to the hot new Lavry DA-10, but Lavry is probably a more accurate DAC. AQVox just has this wonderfully dynamic, textured, organic midrange, which is my thing. Bass and treble certainly are great, too.

The CEC DA53 has the same internals as AQVox since both were designed by the same person, who later went to work for CEC. CEC DA53 tends to be cheaper, but its drawback is that it does not offer the option to turn off upsampling like AQVox does...

kfr01 · « **Reply #6 on:** 8 Mar 2006, 04:02 am »

Excellent --- thanks for even more information.

I love to see a plethora of well-priced USB dac items hitting the market.

I'm leaning towards going Empirical Audio Offramp I2S + mods for my P3A...

Perhaps I'll wait another 6 months and see what develops. I smell a USB to I2S one-box solution coming.

Brian · « **Reply #7 on:** 8 Mar 2006, 05:38 am »

Hi

I have been using the USB2DAC for some weeks now, and must say I think it is a very fine product. Nice build quality and very easy to use.

I use it via the USB-port with EAC and Foobar. It is a really user-friendly set-up and the sound is very good. If you use a HAPC the USB2DAC is certainly something to try out.

It gets my strongest recommendation.

Brian

Zero · « **Reply #8 on:** 8 Mar 2006, 07:22 am »

$700+. Damn, for some reason I thought it was going to be around $400 - looking at the thing. haha

Ah well...

Loftprojection · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Mar 2006, 02:37 pm »

Quote from: Jon L

AQVox is a great-sounding DAC and an absolute bargain; you do need to order direct from the manufacturer with money-back guarantee if you don't like it.

I prefer it to the stock Benchmark, and I personally prefer it to the hot new Lavry DA-10, but Lavry is probably a more accurate DAC. AQVox just has this wonderfully dynamic, textured, organic midrange, which is my thing. Bass and t ...

Jon, are you in North America? If so, how much did you have to pay for the DAC with shipping cost. Their web page says $757EUR that includes 16% tax but the tax is not charge when outside Europe. So I assume it's around $650EUR for the DAC plus shipping? I'm getting quite interested by this DAC, balanced output, no opamps, upsampling on or off, organic midrange, hummmm

thanks

Jon L · « **Reply #10 on:** 9 Mar 2006, 05:58 pm »

Quote from: Loftprojection

Jon, are you in North America? If so, how much did you have to pay for the DAC with shipping cost. Their web page says $757EUR that includes 16% tax but the tax is not charge when outside Europe. So I assume it's around $650EUR for the DAC plus shipping? I'm getting quite interested by this DAC, balanced output, no opamps, upsampling on or off, organic midrange, hummmm

thanks

I didn't order it myself, but the order was put in before the recent price increases (as of 1/06 I think), so the prices were more reasonable than even now

Don't you hate when over-achieving products realize their worth?

But for a seriously overachieving DAC (apparently), check out the fully-modded Zhalou DAC mentioned here:
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167257

Adamay · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 Mar 2006, 06:46 pm »

Is the Zhalou dac a USB dac? I got the impression from the head-fi discussion that it is a conventional SPDIF-input dac, correct?

Loftprojection · « **Reply #12 on:** 14 Mar 2006, 03:44 pm »

Quote from: Adamay

Is the Zhalou dac a USB dac? I got the impression from the head-fi discussion that it is a conventional SPDIF-input dac, correct?

Yes, I also don't think the Zhalou has a USB input... And there are way too many uncertainty for my taste around this DAC, ordering, distributor, mods and price...

JoshK · « **Reply #13 on:** 17 Mar 2006, 04:19 pm »

I think the AQVox looks like a killer dac. I am just dissapointed that it only supports 44.1 via USB. This means no upsampling in foobar or other fancier foobar features.

I am mostly attracted to the class A balanced no feedback discrete output stage and having a roomy enough layout for doing mods myself.

bluemeteor · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 12:03 am »

I have heard its lower priced cousin, the DIYEDEN Great March which has, now don't quote me on this, USB inputs and balanced outputs + a headphne jack. It uses the AD 1825 chip and can oversample to 96 kHz.

I heard a modded one against a stock one.

The Great March sounds very clean and detailed.

Dracule1 · « **Reply #15 on:** 25 Jun 2006, 10:11 pm »

Interesting this DAC. The BB DAC, filtering, and discrete output with balanced circuitry are the same as that seen in the new CEC TL-51XR CD player. Of course the DAC is more flexible.