Help me choose a DAC

[MadHatter37]

I’ve been reading through pages and pages of reviews on here and looked at AmirM’s SINAD ranking list. I still can’t find what I’m seeking. Maybe it doesn’t exist, but I’m gonna try a “Hail Mary” and appeal to the community.

Here’s my list of must haves:
1. Balanced outputs
2. 12v trigger in & out
3. No-Over-Sampling “bitperfect” option Auto switching bitrate to match source
4. Bitrate display
5. SINAD >115dB
6. Headroom to prevent intersample clipping at full user output
7. At least 4V output
8. Excellent clock(s)
9. Low output impedance
10. Gain adjustment for level matching that isn’t displayed prominently like a volume control (that’s the difference between a discrete DAC and one with an integrated preamp)
11. As few extra, cost-raising, features as possible (This should be well under $1k)

I may have overlooked some essentials being a bit new, but these seem fundamental and I’m surprised I can’t find anything. Remind me if there are any other items for a DISCRETE unit which I should add to the list. Thanks!

 

[jcadduono]

D70 Pro Octo, no reason to have bitrate display, just keep your sources on 24-bit or 32-bit output and they will be padded if lower bitrate. Auto changing sample rates or bitrates is the source's job, not something a DAC does. It will not affect the sound at all. It has 12V trigger in/out. SINAD probably somewhere in the 120s, plenty of headroom with 5V output support, clocks...sure? the front panel screen has a ton of info that you can swap between. If it's plugged into a PC then you can adjust the volume of left/right individually in the driver IIRC.
I don't know why would would want low output impedance in a DAC.

 

[boxerfan88]

I am using Topping DM7.

I would recommend you to check it out. It’ll likely meet your “must haves”, and will be within your budget.

Limitation: because it’s using all 8ch of the DAC chip independently, sample rate is limited to 32bits 192ksps per channel. No coax/opt SPDIF.

I’ve been using it for several months now, it has been stable and performs very well. I’m only using 3 out of the 8 channels.

 

[Dunring]

The Topping E70 Velvet should fit your list also. I've got one and think it's got all the features you want. I built a stack with the Octo and A70Pro and it was really similar, and of course no audible difference.

 

[MadHatter37]

D70 Pro Octo, no reason to have bitrate display, just keep your sources on 24-bit or 32-bit output and they will be padded if lower bitrate. Auto changing sample rates or bitrates is the source's job, not something a DAC does. It will not affect the sound at all. It has 12V trigger in/out. SINAD probably somewhere in the 120s, plenty of headroom with 5V output support, clocks...sure? the front panel screen has a ton of info that you can swap between. If it's plugged into a PC then you can adjust the volume of left/right individually in the driver IIRC.
I don't know why would would want low output impedance in a DAC.

I think I found the term I mean when I said auto-changing. It’s NOS vs OS. “No Over Sampling”? I guess I just meant some want to “fix” your inputs and others allow straight through.

“Low” is a relative term, so low enough to be <1% whatever the input impedance on the preamp/amp it’s driving.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll look into it.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I think I found the term I mean when I said auto-changing. It’s NOS vs OS. “No Over Sampling”? I guess I just meant some want to “fix” your inputs and others allow straight through

You definitely need to be clearer on that. NOS is confusing because it seems to mean different things to different people. If you want too be able to set it to a fixed resolution (e.g. 24 bit 96kHz), you will need the source to be sending that. If you try to force a DAC into one setting with the source in another setting, you will have a mess.

Some people consider NOS refers to DACs without brickwall reconstruction filters, but that's simply bad design.

 

[boxerfan88]

I am using Topping DM7.

I would recommend you to check it out. It’ll likely meet your “must haves”, and will be within your budget.

Limitation: because it’s using all 8ch of the DAC chip independently, sample rate is limited to 32bits 192ksps per channel. No coax/opt SPDIF.

I’ve been using it for several months now, it has been stable and performs very well. I’m only using 3 out of the 8 channels.

If you need NOS functionality, then scrap my recommendation.