Budget USB DAC for £40 / $60

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Mariusmssj

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Joined 2012
#1
Hey guys,

I am looking for a good DAC at the price range of £40 / $60.

I got a Vintage Pioneer SA-3000 amp but there is a lot of noise being made by my current sound card in the PC(it's next to my graphics card), from what I heard USB DAC's do bit better in that area.

Would you have any suggestions for a good usb DAC in that price range?

Main usage: Gaming/Music/Movies. Speakers Yamaha NS-BP300.

Thank you 🙂
 
#2
Mariusmssj said:
Hey guys,

I am looking for a good DAC at the price range of £40 / $60.
Click to expand...

Feixiang FX-98S: Burr-Brown PCM2704 + Low-power headphone amp (opamps are socketed, so it's an easy upgrade).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audio-Pream...SRS-BBE-Headphone-Amp-Amplifier-/190879215020

If the link doesn't work, search for PCM2704 on EBay and you should be able to find this USB DAC.

The build quality is excellent (capacitors are all-Japanese, mix of Nichicon, Panasonic, Sanyo, Rubycon and Elna), finish is very slick with gold-plated RCAs, brushed aluminium surfaces, etc.

I upgraded the opamps (OPA2134 for the line amp, LT1364 for the headphone amp) and some coupling caps to Black Gate PK to take it to the next level - with the upgrades, it sounds quite extraordinary for the price. Even without the upgrades, it's a very good deal and sounds good straight out of the box.
 
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#5
linuxguru said:
Let's see if this link works (maybe EBay doesn't like deep linking into their site):

Audio Preamp USB DAC PCM2704 XR1075 QS7779 SRS BBE Headphone Amp Amplifier | eBay

Or search for "PCM2704 XR1075 QS7779" on EBay. It's the one with 4 knobs on the front panel.
Click to expand...

Ok found it.

Does it need a power cable or can it be powered over USB? I assume the audio input is also via USB.
And does it need any drivers to work?

+ Can virtual surround of SRS and BBE be turned off?

Thanks 🙂
 
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#6
It needs a generic wall-wart AC adapter, 12..18V/1A, +ve center (not included in the package) that plugs into a socket at the back. It shows up a generic USB audio device on my Fedora 12 system, and required no additional driver installation - it just worked. It should be similar on Windows and Macs also, since the PCM2704 is a standard USB 1.0 audio device.

Yes, I think the virtual surround is turned off when the left knob with switch (SRS) is kept in the 7 o-clock position (i.e. switch turned off).
 
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#7
linuxguru said:
It needs a generic wall-wart AC adapter, 12..18V/1A, +ve center (not included in the package) that plugs into a socket at the back. It shows up a generic USB audio device on my Fedora 12 system, and required no additional driver installation - it just worked. It should be similar on Windows and Macs also, since the PCM2704 is a standard USB 1.0 audio device.

Yes, I think the virtual surround is turned off when the left knob with switch (SRS) is kept in the 7 o-clock position (i.e. switch turned off).
Click to expand...


Thank you for your help. So 12V 5A adapter won't be too much for it?
 
#8
Mariusmssj said:
Thank you for your help. So 12V 5A adapter won't be too much for it?
Click to expand...

It should be OK - it draws only as much current as required, which shouldn't be more than a few 100 mA at 12V. There's an internal 3-terminal regulator (LM317 or similar) that regulates the internal supply to about 10.9 V. There are also two additional regulators for the PCM2704 chip.

The digital input is only through USB, but it can also accept analog line-level input through the RCA sockets at the back. If the analog input signal is encoded with Dolby Surround (aka Dolby Pro Logic), the XR1075 (if switched on) supposedly decodes that signal and creates the virtual surround effect in conjunction with the Qsound QS7779 chip.

When there's no matrix-encoded surround information in the analog input, there should be no effect on the analog signal - I haven't actually tested this Dolby Surround capability since I don't have any analog source that outputs an encoded Dolby Surround signal.

I can confirm that it is very competently implemented, and the PCM2704 DAC output sounds very good, especially when the line amp is upgraded to an OPA2134, LT1213 or similar high-performance opamp, and the coupling caps are upgraded to Muse and/or Black Gate PK.

The volume and tone controls seem to have no effect on the analog line in to line out path, only on the headphone output level. That's a minor irritation - it can't really be used as a separate analog preamp (independent of the USB digital capability), for instance to obtain analog volume and tone control capability for the 2-ch output of a DVD player or similar.
 
#10
I can't specifically comment on the X-Fi, but sound cards in PCs are sitting in an electrically noisy environment, with very noisy power rails. Most externally-powered USB DACs should be able to attain lower noise floors than typical PCI/PCIe sound cards.
 
#12
Sound cards do manage some respectable measurements, and they often support higher sample rates and bit depths than the most common USB devices. Still, I mostly just use S/PDIF connections to the sound card for playback and capture, mostly to eliminate an additional possible source of ground loops.
 
#13
Well the one that I planned to get the HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC 2 is out of stock and seems like it will be a while since it will come back on.

I've been looking at these ones tell me what you think guys?

SMSL SD-022+ 24Bit 96kHz TE7022 USB DAC



HiFi 24bit/192khz USB DAC digital sound card CM108AH digital to analog convert


USB Audio DAC XR1075 QS7779 SRS BBE Virtual Surround Headphone Amplifier Preamp


In Case ES9023+TE7022 192K-24BIT USB DAC coaxial fiber DAC 110v or 220v


Behringer UCA202 U-Control Ultra low-latency 2 In/2 Out USB/Audio Interface


Or any other suggestions?
 
#15
I do not think you will get anything better than regular sound card that cheap. But for $100 range, look at Emu 0204. If your computer has old parallel PCI (not new serial PCI-x) slot, you can get M-Audio Delta sound card for it.
 
#16
Cornelis Spronk said:
I do not think it would take too long for the HiFimedDIY come back in stock.

None of the other choices look near a good to me. I have the HiFimeDIY and the UCA202. There is no comparison. I find the UCA202 unlistenable.
Click to expand...

Looking back at the site I saw there are 3 of them Normal one ES9023, U2 Asynchronous and Sabre USB DAC 2 that needs an external psu.


Which one did you mean? and is UCA202 is really that much worse?




avp1 said:
I do not think you will get anything better than regular sound card that cheap. But for $100 range, look at Emu 0204. If your computer has old parallel PCI (not new serial PCI-x) slot, you can get M-Audio Delta sound card for it.
Click to expand...

Well my main issue with my current system that my sound card is picking up noise and distortion from my sound card, I would love to eliminate that. Getting better sound quality would be a +
 
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#17
I like the convenience and size of the HiFimeDIY USB DAC. I use it straight to my headphones. I have come from a concerts at the BBC PROMS, and stood 20 ft back from the conductor, the best location in the Royal Albert Hall. Then I have listened to the same concert on Radio 3 on HD sound (320 kps MP3. I am astonished how for such a inexpensive DAC, how close the sound is to the live orchestra. I have never felt this way before.

The UCA202 output to the headphones is really bad. The RCA output is too high an output impedance for the headphones and needs and external headphone amp. The HiFimeDIY USB DAC sounds better straight straight to my headphones that with that amp. I suppose I need a better headphone amp.

Some day I wish to add an external power supply and possibly an USB isolator, but I will not have the time in the near future.

In the meantime, I am extremely happy with the HiFimeDIY USB DAC for such an amazing low price. I have had it for nearly a year and enjoyed it for countless hours.

A $5000 DAC my be better, but it cannot be a matter of night and day.
 
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#18
Thanks for the reply Cornelis 🙂

Got another question:
I seems like my front left audio channel is busted on the Creative sound card. I just tested it with my Roccat Kave 5.1 headset and doing surround test I got massive distortion from front left speaker. This also occurs just using my normal speakers if the sound is turned up past 49%, from 50% to 100% I can hear distortion from the left speaker. BUT this does not occur using the on-board sound card.

Could my sound card be faulty?
 
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