A lot of the higher end DAC reviews have been contentious of late, so I thought it might be a good idea to to start a thread about what people actually want out of a DAC.
For me it looks something like this.
Inputs
For me it looks something like this.
Inputs
- USB - input form my pc (more than one would be nice)
- Optical - input from the office tv
- Bluetooth - for those occasions when I want to listen to something on my phone or tablet.
- Coax - just incase i ever need it
- unbalanced RCA
- balanced XLR
- Bluetooth - for when I need to use Bluetooth iems or headphones because i can't be tethered to my desk
- PEQ - the ability to save more presets than I should ever need, and enough bands per preset to not be limiting
- support for different output voltages
- a preamp mode that allows me to change the output levels
- the ability to have multiple input and output pairs in use at the same time. By that I mean something like optical in to BT out and USB in to XLR out at the same time, without loosing the ability to apply PEQ to the output, or adjust its level.
- the ability to route multiple inputs to one output. The ability to adjust the levels of each input before they are mixed, without loosing the ability to apply PEQ to the output, or adjust its level.
- 12v trigger in and out
- internal psu
- A nice large screen that shows the current settings. being able to control brightness would be nice as well.
- a none generic BT controller
- a nice app for setting up PEQ and saving presets.
- audibly transparent - hopefully that is an obvious requirement