[nwboater]

In the $175 Class D Amp thread I mentioned that I had been using the 0404USB DAC and 'hottuner' asked if I could give more information on it. I thought it was OT to discuss it there, thus this new thread here.

I trust that this DAC at $200-250 will qualify as 'Cheap & Cheerful'. Since some feels it's performance equals DAC's 5 times it's price and up I thought it should be appropriate here.

What hottuner wrote: "I'd be interested in hearing more about your adventures along these lines. Looked up the EMU DAC and yes it does look interesting, certainly cheap and cheerful! Amazing really if the mic and line level pre's are as good as the general comment out there. Might be a good way to rip vinyl!
Dave"

I have no experience ripping vynl, but do know that RIAA compensation is required. This is typically done in a 'phono' preamp at the same time that the gain is boosted from the cartridges low level to a line level signal. I believe the compensation can also be done in some computer programs. I also don't have any experience using the mic inputs other than using a calibrated mic in conjunction with the REW software for subwoofer response testing.

The 0404USB was my first DAC. I was very concerned about SQ since our Klipschorns are very revealing speakers. I have been very pleasantly suprised! I have been using it with its USB port connected to our HTPC which gets all its media over the network from our Windows Home Server Computer. This whole setup has been quite an education, a lot of fun, and at moments quite frustrating! But it has all been very worthwhile.

Not sure if it's appropriate to mention other forums here, (mods please delete or advise me it not), but there are a bunch of threads on the 'headfi' forum. There is also a huge thread on Computer Audiophile about it. Something about ".....on a Beer Budget".

Let me know if you have any questions.

Rod

[Mariusz]

All good Rod and thanks for posting. (will look into it) 


Mariusz

[Cacophonix]

It costs lower than $200. I bought one for $150 shipped sometime back (though i sold it after abt a year - switched to squeezebox). Its a wonderful USB DAC. Cheap, and very good. The only thing that i found irritating was that i had to restart it every couple of days. Or else, i'd find that the volume level was off, or it'd feel lethargic.
But apart from that, its a great system.

[adamaley]

I purchased my EMU 0404-USB 3 years ago and I've been more than pleased with it. It really is a swiss army knife and for only $200. I had just gotten into headphone listening around the same time I built a new multi-purpose PC. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use it as a sound card (excellent in this regard) and as a headphone amp (very adequate). It replaced a top line Audigy card and outperformed it in PC speaker music and gaming duties. I had never used the  other card as a headphone amp, so I wouldn't be able to compare the two. As a DAC and amp it took me to the verge of currently wanting to upgrade my Isabella preamp into a headamp and my Sennheiser HD-580s to Audeze's lcd-2. It opened my ears to the joys of headphone listening and at the time of purchase, I felt it was a notch below my then 2-channel DAC CI Audio VDA-2. The VDA 2 had better resolution and was more revealing and neutral. The EMU was more laid back, quite bassy and slightly more muddled. Keep in mind, Senn 580s share the same characters I have described, perhaps they are not synegistic. All the same, I wasn't expecting too much and, as such, was pleasantly surprised with what it gave me. I feel it is under-utilized because this bad boy performs so many pro-audio functions that I never feel I will need. For $200, it is worth a shot. As mentioned above, check out headfi for more indepth impressions. Hope this illuminates things further.

[hottuner]

Thanks Rod. I want to see if I can dig up something related to ripping vinyl from the windows side, and this look like a good place to start. Hopefully I can find something this weekend - that is if I'm not knee deep building a class D amp

I'll quickly share two things that got me going on this, Michael Fremer's review of software for the mac recently (forget the name at the moment), and the subsequent discovery of a Korg field recorder for about a kilobuck that records to the same format, Sony direct stream digital, which some claim is absolutely transparent.

I'm wandering from cheap n cheerful for the moment, but that recording device is mentioned on the wiki page about DSD here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Stream_Digital

in this specific quote
"The Korg MR-1000 1-bit digital recorder samples at 5.8MHz, twice the SACD rate. It's also referred to as DSD128 because of the sample rate 128x that of CD"

So I'm wondering two things - how to do this on the windows side (RIAA conversion), and how cheap and cheerful the ripping chain might be made, with the reasonable hope for transparency to source

[dvenardos]

I also have the CI VDA-2 and the VDA-2 is leaps and bounds above the analog out on my SB3. If you are saying that this USB is roughly equivalent to the DAC on the squeezebox I wouldn't consider that a great recommendation.

It costs lower than $200. I bought one for $150 shipped sometime back (though i sold it after abt a year - switched to squeezebox). Its a wonderful USB DAC. Cheap, and very good. The only thing that i found irritating was that i had to restart it every couple of days. Or else, i'd find that the volume level was off, or it'd feel lethargic.
But apart from that, its a great system.

[wushuliu]

From what I understand it has a top-notch DAC chip, and can unleash high-end performance with some relatively simple mods, starting with replacing the 5v stock switching supply with a linear regulated supply a la Bolder(?).

[JDUBS]

It is a terrific dac.  I've been using one with a ucd400 amp via it's balanced outs and it sounds great.  I agree that replacing the stock switcher with a good linear is a good idea. 

I've had zero problems with mine which has been on for 18mo 24/7.

-Jim

[Cacophonix]

I also have the CI VDA-2 and the VDA-2 is leaps and bounds above the analog out on my SB3. If you are saying that this USB is roughly equivalent to the DAC on the squeezebox I wouldn't consider that a great recommendation.

No, the DAC in EMU is much better than the SB3. I switched mainly because i wanted to get rid of the cables, and liked the ease of remote. If you don't care for wires, or a remote, then this USB DAC is great.

[adamaley]

As far as DACs , I'll put the squeezebox 3 on the same level as the EMU, but perhaps in different flavors. In hind sight I'll put the VDA  2 more than a couple of notches over these two (without the external power supply). My earlier post was to suggest that theEMU  is listenable and adequate as aDAC  in addition to its other numerous features, for its price.

[hottuner]

Spent a few hours this morning looking into ripping vinyl on the windows side, can't say I'm finding much. I did bump into a thread here on AudioC about Ray Samuels Nighthawk phono pre however, and now I want one of those too. May be time to sell some pre's I no longer use...

So far the best "all out" idea I can find is simply to feed a phono pre into the line input of the Korg MR-1000. There is one review on the Korg at B&H where someone is using it for that purpose, and it seems the device and software are both set up to facilitate this, in addition to normal microphone recording.

Meanwhile, and keeping a little on topic, since the EMU 0404 also has ADC, it seems there would probably be inexpensive software choices that would allow recording PCM to HD at up to 24/192? But as yet not sure of that.

[gvimhoof]

The little project/home/studio recording boxes that are out are really hidden treasures for AD/DA work.   These little boxes- EMU, Presonus, Lexicon, Focusrite, M-audio, Protools, etc- are made by the companies that live and die in the recording industry, so they can't put out trash and call it good if they want to be around tomorrow.  I don't have any experience with the EMU, but my little presonus audiobox usb is killer!  It comes with rock solid quality (same preamps I use at work to record concerts) and it runs ~$150.  If you're looking for cheap and chearful, then check out these little boxes from a good name and enjoy!

[bfr1992t]

On a whim I picked up an 0404 USB about 2 months ago to measure DIY speaker projects/mods and as a short term replacement for the terrible onboard sound in my HTPC (cd collection FLAC'd several years ago but I was still spinning discs). I spent a couple of days tweaking and haven't touched my cd player since. I couldn't even tell you what disc is still in it.

[hottuner]

On a whim I picked up an 0404 USB about 2 months ago to measure DIY speaker projects/mods and as a short term replacement for the terrible onboard sound in my HTPC (cd collection FLAC'd several years ago but I was still spinning discs). I spent a couple of days tweaking and haven't touched my cd player since. I couldn't even tell you what disc is still in it.

That's interesting. A few days tweaking means major overhaul, or? Care to elaborate?

[bfr1992t]

A few days tweaking my HTPC (linux) and my laptop (windoze) to work properly with the E-MU.

I haven't modded it yet but I'm getting the itch to. I know I have a decent power supply in the garage somewhere so that will be the first change. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend.

[hottuner]

I haven't modded it yet but I'm getting the itch to. I know I have a decent power supply in the garage somewhere so that will be the first change. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend.

Cool, if you do please post a "mod report"