Audio Alchemy options

[iep]

I'm looking for a decent DAC to connect to the SPDIF output of my media PC. I've seen s few older Audio Alchemy DACs going on eBay recently and thought they might be worth a punt (particularly with a bit of light modding).

However, I don't know a huge amount about the range of products they make and was looking for a bit of info.

The two that come up most often are the DDE and DAC-IN-THE-BOX. Does anyone know how they compare?

Alternatively, I could wait a while and save up for a REGA IO to match my Mira amp and planet CD player. Do people think the IO would be much better than the AA?

Cheers,

iep

 

[stephensank]

The Dac in the Box is a lovely sounding little dac, and I consider it actually the best of the AA dacs(ddeV3.0 would have been, if the soundstage had not be collapsed by the horrid PMD100 hdcd chip). It's very smooth & easy on the ears, even stock. Some upgrading & a better power supply can make it more spacious & punchy, but it's quite fine stock.

 

[iep]

Thanks, that is good to know. It's difficult to work out how the various models compare so a bit of word of mouth advice is very useful.

At a complete tangent, has anyone tried one of these?

Mark Findlay Audio DAC

iep

 

[SilverStrings]

The audio alchemy stuff is really good I have a DDS pro and a Pro32 DTI which are connected together through their I2S inputs/outputs and that is connected to my TADAC dac, I have never heard a better sounding CD player. I also use to own a dac in the box which I powered with a linear power supply and it was really good but the analog output stopped working after a now I just have it sitting around here I'll probably put up on ebay soon.

 

[arupg]

@iep: Go for the DITB, its worth every penny. As stephensank says, yes indeed, its probably Mark Schifter's best done job while at AA. The DITB can be pushed up several notches & it all depends how far you would like to pursue that road. It also benefits quite a bit if you can ADD a jitter-buster like DTI+ or Theta TLC before it.

In case you would like to talk about the mods, I am cool with it.

 

[Sausagefingers]

Hi,

I too have the AA gear and love it. I have the dds pro, dti pro 32 and the dde v3. I'd love to be able to use the i2s bus connection but I can't find the right connectors to make up cables. Can anyone tell me where to buy parts or cables or even how to modify the connections on the gear itself to a more readily available connector type?
Any advice is much appreciated.

Regards,

Andy