Can recommend this one. I have the 50 dollar simpler version of the same brand and it sounds cleaner than my Lynx L22.
Here is a Swedish guy who did some comparisons. Just google translate it. It plays "veeeery similar" to the Cambridge DACmagic. It had some jitter using .flac files played from a blueray player, but no jitter when using .flac files from flash cards. The player had trouble keeping up reading from the DVD. But not on the Cambridge device. Strange problem.
Worked best on USB, he writes. It has an older optical chip. But the optical sounded good. The coaxial input was worse.
My theory is that these newer dac chips are better than the older Lynx cards because DAC chips have evolved so much recently. SMSL has chosen very nice DAC chips, I think. The Swedish guy exchanged some opamps - an easy procedure sine it is just to pull the opamp out and replace it with what you like.
On my 50 dollar DAC I had a problem with the lights in my room blinking and I got a small shock from touching the device. I contacted the salesman and I am getting a new adapter free of charge. Those power adapter are probably worth replacing with a known brand.
There was a luxury version with a built in thoroidal power supply for 220 dollars. Might be worth looking at. I am very impressed so far with my simpler SMSL DAC, so when I have some extra cash I might buy the bigger version.
Link to the Swedish guys tests:
SM2YER Goran's Homepage
Here is a Swedish guy who did some comparisons. Just google translate it. It plays "veeeery similar" to the Cambridge DACmagic. It had some jitter using .flac files played from a blueray player, but no jitter when using .flac files from flash cards. The player had trouble keeping up reading from the DVD. But not on the Cambridge device. Strange problem.
Worked best on USB, he writes. It has an older optical chip. But the optical sounded good. The coaxial input was worse.
My theory is that these newer dac chips are better than the older Lynx cards because DAC chips have evolved so much recently. SMSL has chosen very nice DAC chips, I think. The Swedish guy exchanged some opamps - an easy procedure sine it is just to pull the opamp out and replace it with what you like.
On my 50 dollar DAC I had a problem with the lights in my room blinking and I got a small shock from touching the device. I contacted the salesman and I am getting a new adapter free of charge. Those power adapter are probably worth replacing with a known brand.
There was a luxury version with a built in thoroidal power supply for 220 dollars. Might be worth looking at. I am very impressed so far with my simpler SMSL DAC, so when I have some extra cash I might buy the bigger version.
Link to the Swedish guys tests:
SM2YER Goran's Homepage
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