audiophilleo 2

No doubt the Off Ramps have a great reputation and a big price tag. Seems like the $500 is a pricepoint that a great converter could still be picked up at. has anyone compared the SotM DX USB and the April Music U3 to the AP2?
Also on Ebay there are 2 attractive devices one at a bit over $100 and the other at around $175... both use a asynchronous Cmedia chip, galvanic isolation and reclocks, One outputs toslink/spdif-coax, the more expensive adds balanced... I have the cheapie, I don't have anything to compare to, except it blows the socks off the USB in on my DAC that uses a Tenor chip. Affordable quality converters are hard to find. This info would be good for us all.

I commented on this tread back in July. I ended up buying an Audio-gd, DI-DSP... They made several changes since this thing has been reviewed last. The reviewed models include the old TE7022(adaptive) for USB conversion and a DSP3 processor(jitter reduction). Audio-Gd changed to the TE8022(asynchronous)and updated the processor to a version 3.1. I had only compared it to very inexpensive convertors which it blew away. This past weekend a friend brought over his Wadia 121. Their presentation was similar, the Wadia had a touch more height, the Audio-gd had a touch more width. Tonal balance was similar between the 2, but the Audio-Gd has a nature to it that I'll call analog, a touch richer in the mid range that I really enjoyed. The Wadia was not dry, but in comparison, it leaned that way. Now the bad news, Kingwa has had terrible driver problems with the Tenor 8022 chip developing for Windows 8 and has already discontinued this piece until he has an answer. I use win 8 and indeed, occassionally it will fail, I restart and all is well. Don't know if its worth it for anyone to consider, it is in stock. I'd love to compare it to the Audiophilleo, my instincts are that it would compete well and it is half the price. I have no affiliation with anyone at audio-gd or any hifi company, I have just found this to be a huge value and thought I'd share.
Tim