New to DAC, need advice.


I recently purchased a Parasound ZDAC here and it worked well for a short time but then started acting up with short, intermittent bursts of static while streaming Tidal. Then for a day wouldn't play certain parts of the music such as missing a guitar or piano notes. After contacting Parasound they tell me it's a circuit issue. It's out of warranty and they are offering to have me ship it there for repair. It's been error-free for a few days now and in the mean time it's been recommended to me by Jim Williams of Adcom modification fame that I should consider the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital DAC. It's roughly twice the price I paid for the ZDAC but if I send it in for repair, with shipping, I'll be right around the price of the Pro-ject DAC new, and it can decode MQA files where the ZDAC can't. So I defer to the community here. What's my best option on a limited budget?
128x128ratboysr

Showing 2 responses by jond

Just out of curiosity was any of the stuff you were streaming when you got static higher resolution i.e. 24/96 or 24/192 or MQA?
ratboysr what you are hearing is your dac not being able to play hi rez files I had the same thing happen to me. Anything in Masters you should avoid or you will get static. If regular 16/44.1 recordings work there is nothing at all wrong with your DAC.