05-14-2023, 03:52 PM
(05-10-2023, 11:24 PM)TheOldPresbyope Wrote: @romain
I believe in objective measures of performance so I'm a big fan of folks like amirm and his Audio Science Review site.
It's been my experience that I'm likely to be more than satisfied with the audio performance of any product which appears on amirm's growing list of "recommended" DACs. (There used to be a convenient interactive page where one could search his database for recommended DACs by cost, interface, etc., but I can't find it now.) My selection process consists of finding a DAC on the list which has the features I require and costs no more than I'm willing to pay.
I have the USB-driven Khadas Tone1 board, actually, not the Tone2. I'm quite happy with the Tone1 sonically but it is a bare board; no enclosure, display, etc. I also recently purchased the I2S-driven Inno-Maker HiFi DAC Pro HAT which incorporates the same DAC chip as the Tone1 does. I'm quite happy with it too, although again it's just a board. Both boards have been measured and recommended by amirm and both boards cost less than US$100. Both boards work fine with moOde of course.
From what I've read, the USB-driven Topping E30 II should be just as satisfactory to me as the above. Based on a (pair of) different DAC chip, it is a complete package with enclosure, front panel display, multiple input paths, and even a remote control, and yet costs just US$150. That's probably the most I'd be willing to pay given how well even less costly DACs perform.
The USB-driven Khadas Tone2 has the same DAC chip as the two boards I have but otherwise is a different animal in terms of its enclosure, audio circuitry, etc. There are lots of nice things to say about it but I would have to think hard about spending US$250 given the quality of the rest of my system(s).
As Tim has mentioned, there are other possibilities. Be sure you can have the ability to evaluate and return or exchange if you're hesitant.
Eschew audiophilia nervosa and enjoy the music.
Regards,
Kent
PS - for me, software volume control is just fine even though it's not a "bit perfect" process, same for SoX resampling, and for transcoding DSD to PCM (for example, because I want to use crossfeed processing with my headphones or software volume control with DSD-encoded tracks). There was a time in my life when I had golden ears and might possibly have discerned audible differences with those techniques. Even that were true then, and I'm not sure it was, it certainly isn't true now..
Agree on ASR. Measurements are the best decision support tool available. The semantics of subjective audio reviews drive me nuts. I've been interested in audio since I was in high school in the early '60s. Don't forget the limits of human hearing. There are a lot of audio devices that have noise and distortion well below the threshold of the human ear.
