A company called Headamp is releasing a small usb dac with both rca outs and mini outs. It's called the Pico Upsampling USB DAC. This the same dac that is in the Pico portable headphone amp/dac. I've spent a lot of time with the prototype and sold my Apogee Duet because I felt the Pico was that good. I've owned the Wavelength Cosecant which is a great dac but in the end I felt the Apogge Duet was better in terms of what I was looking for in sound quality. The first hundred of these dacs are being offered at $299 (Justin from Headamp may have reached that max already but he could extend it if the demand continues as it has). I don't think you will find anything out there as good at the price and even at higher prices. I have no affiliation with Headamp other than being a friend of Justin from various audio meets I've met him at and being a customer.
Here is a write up I did with a pic of the prototype back in December:
Justin has changed the Pico, one of the finest, if not the finest, portable headphone amp/DAC combination into one of the finest home/portable usb DACs around.
I’ve had the opportunity to audition the prototype to a new Headamp product that I believe will go into production not too long down the road. I think I have been using it in my speaker and headphone rig for at least the past month. It is a portable/home DAC only Pico. I have only used it as a home source since it arrived. Here are some pics:
As you can see, it is not a finished product. Basically the DAC board in a Pico case without the front and rear panels. It uses RCA outputs only and a usb mini input. I owned a Pico headphone amp/DAC for a while and used the DAC as a source on a few occasions. However, it required me to use the headphone out as the output to me rig which added another amp into the signal path. I found it to be an excellent source but not quite as good as my Apogee Duet. I am committed to using a computer as a source and currently have a Mac Mini and Apogee Duet as my main digital source. I’ve found the Duet to rival digital sources in the $1000 to $2000 range. The Duet is limited to Mac only which leaves as an option for a smaller percentage of the overall market, which is unfortunate.
In comes the DAC only Pico. I immediately moved it into my system and did some quick A/B tests and was instantly surprised at the sound quality. I then kept it as my main digital source for a couple of weeks without using the Duet at all. I then went back to the Duet for a while and then did some more A/B comparisons. My rig at the moment consists of a KGSS DX amplifier and a Stax SRD-7 mkii with Lambda Sigs, borrowed O2 and He Audio 1.2b. I also ran it through my speaker rig which consists of a Berendsen Pre-1 SE preamp, TAD Hibachi monoblocks and System Audio Ranger speakers.
Overall, I am not sure which I prefer. The Pico is good enough that I could easily ditch the Duet and live happily ever after with the Pico (happily ever after is relative when it comes to me buying and selling gear). I’ve listened to all sorts of music since coming into possession of the Pico. There has not been anything I’ve heard that I didn’t feel was done justice through the Pico. There is no high end glare or harshness. The detail is produced by this DAC is stunning. Upright bass sounds like the string is being pulled and you have your ear up to the instrument. Finger slides on acoustic guitar are clearly heard to the point where you almost feel it yourself. The bottom end is equally impressive. From Ray Brown to Victor Wooten to Marcus Miller to Particia Barber (gobs of bass in her recordings). The bass is deep, powerful and precise. The bass has weight to it. Mids sound beautiful. The human voice is reproduced with such a realistic quality that if you close your eyes you can get fooled into believing you are getting your own private concert. (alright, some exaggeration but you get what I’m saying).
Soundstage is equally impressive. It produces a as good an image as the rest of your gear will permit. It is neither aggressive nor laid back. It has a very smooth overall presentation that sounds refined to my ears. Instruments have a realistic timbre or tone.
I tend not to start impression threads these days as I don’t have the ability to put into words the feelings imparted from a listening experience as others are able to do. I tend to be more general in my comments, as I have been here. That is how I listen to music. I don’t try to determine how good a piece of gear sounds but rather how much enjoyment I get from listening to a piece of music. I am sure there are better DACs and other digital sources out there. I’ve probably heard them over the years but I tell you this little DAC reaches the good enough for me standard. I will likely have a cdp sometime down the road but I don’t think it would be instead of the Pico just in addition to it. I’ve owned a Wavelength Cosecant in the past and thought that was the end of the line for me until the Duet arrived. Whether I will dump the Duet for the Pico remains to be seen but I will have a Pico assuming it goes into production. It is every bit the equal of the Duet and I would not take argument with anyone who found the Pico to be superior. It is that good. Both DACs are in a class well above there price point. The Pico sounds better than any product under $500 should (not sure of the price but assume it will be under $500).
