I found 2 Chinese dacs on eBay that I may be interested in. Are any of you familiar with these?
DAC-PH
WM8740 + DIR9001 DAC
DAC-PH
WM8740 + DIR9001 DAC
Warm and smooth without fatigue? Depending on how picky you are about those requirements there may or may not be a good solution that you will find satisfactory. Maybe you could rank which things are most important to you, and what your budget is? Also if there is a dac you were happy with the past and or one you weren't happy with maybe that would be helpful to know.
Otherwise, I would say that to get everything you asked for in a combination that sounds really good you might find one under $10k - $15k, but probably more than $5k. If your budget is more like $100 - $150, probably you will have to be more specific about what you don't want the most. Is warm more important that smooth? How much of a problem would fatiguing be? Those sorts of tradeoffs.
Also, do you need hi-res? DSD? Just want to play CDs?
Otherwise, I would say that to get everything you asked for in a combination that sounds really good you might find one under $10k - $15k, but probably more than $5k. If your budget is more like $100 - $150, probably you will have to be more specific about what you don't want the most. Is warm more important that smooth? How much of a problem would fatiguing be? Those sorts of tradeoffs.
Also, do you need hi-res? DSD? Just want to play CDs?
If you are NOS inclined - https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/lingdac-cost-effective-rbcd-multibit-dac-design.324933/
Not quite $10000 but something there might be just what is needed.
Not quite $10000 but something there might be just what is needed.
DAC AD1862: Almost THT, I2S input, NOS, R-2R I built this DAC and am VERY satisfied with the no fatiguemusic that comes out of it. My wife also commented that she now likes listening to CD's and did not like them through the CD player DAC.
I decided that I am going to try the dac listed below, as well as the battery powered 1543.
L1387 HIFI USB DAC 4X Quad TDA1387 USB decoder
My only problem now is running the usb converter with windows 7. Does it need a driver?
L1387 HIFI USB DAC 4X Quad TDA1387 USB decoder
My only problem now is running the usb converter with windows 7. Does it need a driver?
It should probably work with the default UAC1 USB sound drivers, but maybe not. That might mean you would be limited to 48kHz maximum sample rate, and Windows will resample all sound to the 'Control Panel/Sound Device' default sample rate and bit-depth you specify as in the pic below. For that dac you might want to try setting it to 16/44 (CD Quality).
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Can't say for certain. No idea what the USB I/F is. Pretty sure I've always needed drivers in Win 7. My XMOS usb i/f only started working without drivers in Windows 10.
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I found another 1387 with a discreet I/V stage that I will probably try instead (single chip).
HIFI Philips Little Giant TDA1387 decoder
HIFI Philips Little Giant TDA1387 decoder