Unicorn hunting - DACs . . .

[misterdog]

Although it seems to follow a familiar pattern on ASR of 1 page of good reported measurements followed by 147 pages of quality control problems (in this case relating to DSD playback).

My M400 has sub standard output on RCA, some people are outraged, since fixed.

Though who uses RCA when looking for best sound quality when XLR output has some 4dB better SINAD than RCA ?

Some people are also outraged that the maximum voltage output on XLR is 5.4V when they think that there should be a 'standard' at 4 Volts.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-dac-review.13732/#lg=attachment66450&slide=0

The extra 2/3dB SNR gained allows for better gain matching with your pre or amp.

Sorry I forgot we don't have objective facts on here, suffice to say that it sounds as good as my 4 box Paradise phono stage and Ortofon Cadenza Black analogue rig.

 

[martin clark]

Dac outputs that high are ludicrous - unless the total pre/power amp chain is optimised to take advantage of it (via lower total gain than usual, to the tune of approaching 15dB gain less overall than is usual). Else - the theoretical advantage will be more than entirely discarded via attenuation.

And in that- actually realising the theoretical SNR advantage of such DAC outputs is moot. Very moot.

(if your system end to end is geared around such -good for you)

 

[DimitryZ]

SMSL M400 is better I have both.

Though the specs looked slightly better on ASR for the Gustard which is why I bought it to try.

I am sure both are excellent. I wanted to give the new ES chipset a try.

 

[misterdog]

Dac outputs that high are ludicrous - unless the total pre/power amp chain is optimised to take advantage of it (via lower total gain than usual, to the tune of approaching 15dB gain less overall than is usual). Else - the theoretical advantage will be more than entirely discarded via attenuation.

And in that- actually realising the theoretical SNR advantage of such DAC outputs is moot. Very moot.

(if your system end to end is geared around such -good for you)

My Benchmark AHB 2 amp is optimal on it's low gain setting.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ark-ahb2-amp.7628/#lg=attachment26579&slide=0

More unicorns available in low gain mode with output optimised.