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  DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac
I know this is impossible to quantify, but with a good stereo system (Cayin TA30 tube integrated amp & Green Mountain Audio Europa speakers), what's the magnitude of difference using the following dacs?

Airport Express (I already have the AX, and can connect it to the integrated amp with RCA's [analog])

Waveterminal U24: computer to USB to waveterminal to amp (waveterminal does the DA conversion)

Inexpensive DAC like ART DIO with waveterminal: computer to USB to waveterminal to ART DIO to amp (ART DIO does DA conversion)

Apogee mini-dac: computer to USB to mini-dac to amp

Other?

What's the best bang for the buck?
mschamberlin@adelphia.net  

11-05-04
  Responses (1-65 of 65)
Click title to read one, or click date to read all below it.

11-06-04   I would really love to hear the answer to this myself becaus ...   Dshea_32665

11-06-04   We sell the waveterminal. it's used with our professional t ...   Rives

11-06-04   Thanks dschea_32665. i know it's all subjective, but without ...   mschamberlin@

11-06-04   I have been doing research on this as well. the only way i c ...   Edumke

11-06-04   The edirol is probably the best choice for imac. an aes/ebu ...   Audioengr

11-06-04   Steve, i tried the transit on two separate apple systems m ...   Edumke

11-06-04   If i were using the analogue out for these cards, i think th ...   Dshea_32665

11-07-04   Right now i have two systems set up. one with the minidac, t ...   Edumke

11-07-04   Thanks for the information edumke! what adds so much to it ...   Dshea_32665

11-07-04   I have a friend who switched from the transit to a wavetermi ...   Edumke

11-07-04   One thing about the transit - i use it with foobar player an ...   Audioengr

11-07-04   Bought an airport express and i will be modding it soon... ...   Audioengr

11-07-04   Thank you. i look forward to your review.   Wacomme

11-08-04   Folks - first many thanks for taking the time to share your ...   Njp

11-08-04   That is great information from your friend edumke. thanks. ...   Dshea_32665

11-08-04   Unfortunately i dont have a mac laptop, and i probably will ...   Audioengr

11-08-04   I use the ua-5 and it sounds pretty good for its price and n ...   Runner77

11-09-04   Where do you live? i'm sure someone hear that lives near you ...   Wacomme

11-09-04   Fwiw the m-audio audiophile firewire has worked flawlessly f ...   Dknightd

11-10-04   I live in the mountains in central oregon. 7 miles to the ne ...   Audioengr

11-10-04   Surely someone with a mac can make the drive. anyone? i'm i ...   Wacomme

11-13-04   I have listened to the mcintosh mda1000 dac. the mda1000 i ...   Edumke

11-15-04   Thanks edumke. it looks like i will be purchasing a waveter ...   Dshea_32665

11-15-04   Dshea_32665, i have set up two nearly identical systems. one ...   Edumke

11-15-04   For passing the signal through to my dac, i've been using th ...   Grindstaff

11-15-04   Great guys thanks. off to ebay to buy a waveterminal. then ...   Dshea_32665

11-17-04   Having some trouble getting my pc laptop to talk to the airp ...   Audioengr

11-24-04   I received my waveterminal. i very much agree with the impr ...   Dshea_32665

12-03-04   Hey all, newbie here..so bear with me. i'm currently sendi ...   Cjtalbot

12-03-04   View the following thread: http://www.audioasylum.com/scrip ...   mschamberlin@

01-27-05   Is there any consensus regarding this question? which is bes ...   Wacomme

02-01-05   "i tried the transit on two separate apple systems myse ...   Audioengr

02-03-05   In looking at gordon rankin's website discussion of setting ...   Sfcaplaw

06-01-05: Pardales
I am about to construct such a system. I am starting with a G4 laptop, and external hard drive and a U24 Waveterminal. I will connect the waveterminal directly to my integrated. I will let you know how it goes.
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


06-02-05   I was interested enough in this whole topic to buy an airpor ...   Rooze

06-05-05: Pardales
Well the whole project has, thus far, come off without a hitch. They system sounds excellent and I love having music at the scroll of a mouse. Now for the long, arduous task of importing all my music to iTunes....
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


06-15-05   Followup: i was in on this thread earlier on and wanted to ...   Dshea_32665

06-15-05: Pardales
I am using the U24 as well, with nice results. But I want more. I am trying to decide between the Apogee USB Mini DAC and the Benchmark DAC 1. Any opinions or experience?
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


06-19-05: Pardales
I just figured out that I can get lots of great radio through my computer/internet as well. I can now sell my changer and tuner if I want. I am thinking about putting my money towards a really good DAC since my computer is turning out to be the heart of my system. Now that I have ripped my 500 cd's to computer, and have all the album artwork loaded as well, I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. I am rediscovering my music collection and listening to stuff I haven't listened to for years. It would not surpise me if we begin to see a lot of USB DAC's on the market very soon.
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


06-20-05   I answered this in the digital thread, but i have the same s ...   Dshea_32665

07-12-05   Pc, wireless to sb2. sb2 - external dac or analog out. up to ...   Wslam

07-15-05: Pardales
Wslam: what is an SB2?
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


07-21-05: Pardales
Just as a follow-up: I find myself astounded at the sound quality of my G4 laptop out to the Waveterminal U24 into the preamp section of my 6900 integrated. I preferred the sound of this combo to the Apogee Mini-DAC (used both as a stand alone DAC and direct drive into amp). Don't get me wrong, the Apogee was excellent and I learned a lot from it, but it was not a significant enough improvement over the Waveterminal set-up to justify the 1K price-tag (I got the Apogee from Sweetwater, they are a GREAT dealer and had a 30-day money back guarantee). It was mostly different.

I am now auditioning the Benchmark Dac-1. Too early to say but I will follow up once I have logged some hours with it both stand alone and direct drive into my amp section of the 6900.

It has been fun!

Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


07-26-05: Pardales
Sent the Benchmark back to Audio Advisor today. I am almost ready to give up and just stick with the Waveterminal itself. I don't know what is inside that little box but it must be pretty special. I just got a great deal on a used Dodson 217 MK II-D DAC (with 218 software and upgraded BNC digital input). We'll see. Does anyone know what kind of D/A is in the Waveterminal? At $159 it has to be considered an absolute bargain.
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


07-27-05   i am in the process of setting up a database with foobar an ...   Racerxnet

07-27-05   I assume the trivista handles jitter reasonably well. that ...   Kenn39

07-27-05: Pardales
Kenn39: I am aware of the Waveterminal as a device than can take USB out of the computer and convert it into S/PDIF or coaxial. What others are there and are some better than others?
Pardales  (Threads | Answers | This Thread)


07-28-05   Pardales: i was referring to the various stock models from m ...   Kenn39

07-28-05   Racerxnet - forget the sound card. use an external converte ...   Audioengr

07-29-05   Audioengr: i am using an external dac. i bought the music f ...   Racerxnet

08-05-05   I've played around with using the airport express and then a ...   Highdudgeon

11-26-05   "i cannot tell the difference between this and a $2,000 ...   Ecruz

11-26-05   Too many variables here: is the standalone dac better than t ...   Kenn39

11-26-05   "how the whole system sounds at the end depends on many ...   Ecruz

11-26-05   Dollar for dollar, you can't do better than hard drive based ...   Kenn39

11-26-05   I would be using itunes with full size files. i've consider ...   Ecruz

11-26-05   I was afraid of the word "itunes". on a winpc, fo ...   Kenn39

12-24-05   I have ae's going through a dac1 to red rose spirit's in my ...   Kalalena

12-24-05   Kenn39 wrote: i was afraid of the word "itunes". o ...   Audioengr

01-30-06   Hi steve, how do you upsample on itunes using a powerbook?   Adidadi

02-05-06   To upsample in itunes on a mac (running osx 10.4.4), go to y ...   Edumke

02-08-06   I only see up to 48,000hz on line out. i even tried digital ...   Adidadi

02-08-06   96khz is only available on the newer macs. i think that th ...   Edumke

04-25-06   I have compared using airport express and hooked it up to my ...   Henryhk

06-06-06   I have a headroom total bithead right now, which goes out of ...   Melomaniac


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