DAC under 200€ for new newbies

[Charvel]

Oh, yeah - your next purchase should be a measurement microphone (UMIC-1 is the best option) and the free REW software to use it.

Start making measurements, start understanding what your system is doing 'in your room ' and start realising what you can do improve that.

somebody already say me taht when we are talking about the mesurment for the filter of diy speaker, the same mic. but the berhinger ECM8000 is cheaper and have the same capacities. We just need a corection files to use it in REW

 

[EERecordist]

Hi,
I want a DAC because I have a lot of dematerialized music. Actually I only use a USB key into my HT amp ( Yamaha RX-V673 ) and it sound pretty bad comparted to my CD player ( JVC XL-E34 ). In one month I'm gonna get an old pc for free ( windows 7, 4Go ram and 320Go of stockage ( AMD graphique card )). I want to reset everything, delete any app that I don't want and only use foobar2000 and asio.
This is what I want a DAC ( with USB input and RCA output in preference )

Complete setup :
Amp : Yamaha RX-V673
turntable : JVC AL-E300
CD : JVC XL-E31
tuner/amp/K7 : JVC DR-E500L
speaker : JVC SP-E500 ( in the future, this gonna be replace by a diy with Davis acoustics and Dayton Audio speaker )
Luxman Slim T4
SUB : Focal SB-25 A1
sub amp : straigh'in first 2c

Welcome to ASR!

With the PC you can find free audio measuring tools once you finish this project. While not entirely free on the hardware side, the REW freeware, whatever DAC you buy, an ADC like the Cosmos, and a calibrated microphone allows very good measurements. Those parts are subject of many threads.

 

[kemmler3D]

somebody already say me taht when we are talking about the mesurment for the filter of diy speaker, the same mic. but the berhinger ECM8000 is cheaper and have the same capacities. We just need a corection files to use it in REW

I have both of these mics, they're both fine for the purpose.

 

[Charvel]

Welcome to ASR!

With the PC you can find free audio measuring tools once you finish this project. While not entirely free on the hardware side, the REW freeware, whatever DAC you buy, an ADC like the COSMOS, and a calibrated microphone allows very good measurements. Those parts are subject of many threads.

that what people say me on the french hi-fi forum. but before, i have to build them.

 

[Charvel]

I have both of these mics, they're both fine for the purpose.

perfect, that save me some money

 

[AnalogSteph]

1. Whatever the RX-V673 has should be more than adequate in the DAC department, generally speaking. Use its digital inputs (Toslink, coax or HDMI). Note: Receivers from this generation are known for a prematurely dying TI DSP chip on the HDMI board. That thing should be fitted with a heatsink (using thermal glue), which would hopefully delay the inevitable long enough. Should you ever have trouble with it not wanting to power up, there's a notorious film capacitor on the standby power supply board that serves as a voltage dropper and loses capacitance over time (should be a 22 nF / 0.022 µF 630 V if memory serves, I would advise replacing it with a Y2 class type for lengevity).

2. Since you have a Focusrite something or other, I assume there is at least one XLR microphone input. I would thus look for a decent, individually calibrated measurement microphone. You can't go wrong with a Beyerdynamic MM-1 if your budget stretches that far.

3. Once equipped with (2.), you should be ready for your foray into loudspeaker DIY. Your old JVC speakers would be good guinea pigs... speakers like this tend to be let down by their laughably simple crossovers (I won't be surprised if you don't find a lot more than two electrolytic capacitors and a resistor or two on there). I would also expect thin-walled, unbraced cabinets with little to no stuffing, all areas that could be improved with a bit of elbow grease.

4. The PC you are about to receive is likely to require some work before it's usable.
4a) While Windows 7 still has optimzations in place that make life with a conventional harddrive less painful than it could be, look out for a ca. 500 GB SATA SSD to upgrade it with. Either a Samsung 870 EVO (or used 860 EVO) or Crucial MX500 would be a good choice. I have cloned several systems using Macrium Reflect.
4b) The fan situation may not be very optimized. It goes without saying that you want a music playing PC to be quiet. Study the motherboard manual to find out what kind of fan connections you have and which are even controllable at all. If the machine is as old as I think it may be (I'm putting my bets on a Core 2 Duo or an Athlon Xsomething / Phenom II deal or an AMD socket FM2 (A-series) APU, hopefully it's not an AMD E-series APU or similar Celeron), a low-end deal may only have a single 4-pin PWM-controlled CPU fan header and a 3-pin for a system fan. You were expected to use a fan potentiometer for the latter if required, a common accessory ca. 2010. At least it should not be too difficult to find a better CPU cooler if required.
4c) You can probably find something more modern (or spare parts) at an electronics recycling place these days.

 

[Charvel]

1. Whatever the RX-V673 has should be more than adequate in the DAC department, generally speaking. Use its digital inputs (Toslink, coax or HDMI). Note: Receivers from this generation are known for a prematurely dying TI DSP chip on the HDMI board. That thing should be fitted with a heatsink (using thermal glue), which would hopefully delay the inevitable long enough. Should you ever have trouble with it not wanting to power up, there's a notorious film capacitor on the standby power supply board that serves as a voltage dropper and loses capacitance over time (should be a 22 nF / 0.022 µF 630 V if memory serves, I would advise replacing it with a Y2 class type for lengevity).

Wow, idk this series have all of this problem ...

i'm gonna buy a mic in the futur not a pretty expensive one but Kemmler says ECM8000 is good and it don't gonne do a hole in my wallet.

I know that the pc is going to require a little work, for the moment ti's not mine. It let me the time to get the parts. if my memory is good it's an acer aspire X1430.

 

[gwing]

I don't serch a player. I dont use streaming plateform. And 250€ is to expensive form me.

They are available from several sources for £149 at the moment which is under your budget.

No streaming? How about other stuff it does like the parametric EQ? Still - if you're not interested you're not interested.

 

[Charvel]

They are available from several sources for £149 at the moment which is under your budget.

No streaming? How about other stuff it does like the parametric EQ? Still - if you're not interested you're not interested.

mmmh i dont ave the complet specs of him in head, i see that tomorrow

 

[kemmler3D]

somebody already say me taht when we are talking about the mesurment for the filter of diy speaker, the same mic. but the berhinger ECM8000 is cheaper and have the same capacities. We just need a corection files to use it in REW

It's worth mentioning that you need an audio interface with a mic input to use the ECM8000... not sure if you mentioned whether you have one or not. The UMIK works on its own which is definitely more convenient.

 

[Mikig]

if you don't want to complicate your life with filters, displays, remote control, etc. Smsl SU-1 is wonderful. You connect it and it works great. You forget about it, like I did in my main system....I truly found it to be a very successful product. It's not balanced.
Otherwise, if you want something more complete, you can find many in that price range that have wonderful performance and all the connectivity you need.

 

[Charvel]

It's worth mentioning that you need an audio interface with a mic input to use the ECM8000... not sure if you mentioned whether you have one or not. The UMIK works on its own which is definitely more convenient.

I said higher I have a focusrite solo gen3

 

[Charvel]

if you don't want to complicate your life with filters, displays, remote control, etc. Smsl SU-1 is wonderful. You connect it and it works great. You forget about it, like I did in my main system....I truly found it to be a very successful product. It's not balanced.
Otherwise, if you want something more complete, you can find many in that price range that have wonderful performance and all the connectivity you need.

For the moment I think I'm gonna do with what a have. And when my speaker are upgrade, when I tested it on a calibration mic, a this moment I start my reflection on a dedicated DAC. If everybody says I can't hear differences between my focusrite and a DAC, I don't see the interest to pay 85€ when you can only spend 15€ on a good cable.

 

[Monster]

I am listening to music on an SMSL C100 right now. It measures well and sounds great.

My understanding is that it is basically an SMSL SU-1 with a remote control and basic Bluetooth capability added. For around €100 it's an absolute bargain, in my view.

Edit:- It seems that the SMSL C100 may not be available in France. At least not from Amazon.

 

[Charvel]

I am listening to music on an SMSL C100 right now. It measures well and sounds great.

My understanding is that it is basically and SMSL SU-1 with a remote control and basic Bluetooth capability added. For around €100 it's an absolute bargain, in my view.

Edit:- It seems that the SMSL C100 may not be available in France. At least not from Amazon.

I think audiophonics have it. For the moment I'm just gonna use me Focusrite and when my system is goodly upgraded, I see for a DAC.