Small form factor, budget DACs?


I'm trying to restore the musicality to my system, piece by piece. A few years ago my Jolida JD-602A CD player finally died and I've never really found a good replacement. I think really I've been mourning the loss and lacked the funds to get something of equal quality (since it was sort of a giant killer).

So, what can I get for < $400? Used is fine, but it has to be a compact form factor - I don't have room for another full-sized component. I think the 1/2 size form factor that Channel Islands, Musical Fidelity and Creek use is about as big as I could go.

24/96 is a plus since I have a bit of DVD-A stuff but not a necessity. I don't really have an opinion for or against oversampling, or regarding filterless DACs.

Here are the DACs that have popped up in my search so far:

$175 - Lite Audio filterless DAC
$250-400 - Ack! Dac
$200? - Creek OBH-14 - I'd have gotten one by now but I have yet to see one pop up on the used market. Probably a good sign.
$300-400? - Musical Fidelity X-24K - older DAC (circa 2000), but it looks nice and let's me stay with the appealing X-component form factor (I have an X-ACT and X-LPS now). Maybe a little overpriced - I can't help but think that for that money I could get something better
$400-600 - Channel Islands DAC - undoubtedly the best DAC on the list, but also the most expensive, so it would take the longest for me to save up the coinage.

Anything I'm missing from the list?
hudsonhawk

Showing 2 responses by brooks

My advice (worth what you are paying for it) it to treat Audiogon like your personal auditioning service. Buy, listen, and sell if you don't like it. You will lose a few buckes each time (maybe), but you will be better off in the long run. Listening to the rest of us lather on about gear we own doesn't really help you in the long run...we all come with our own preconceptions...for example, I owned a Musical Fidelity headphone amp...couldn't wait to get rid of it, so I never reccommend their products to anyone...others obviously will disagree.
It's more work and will take longer, but you will be better off in the end.

There's another thing. Above I said go listen to a nonos dac. I love my dac (it's obviously a nonos), but just because it works in my dac, doesn't mean it will work in a Ack! dac or a Nixon or an Audio Note or a whatever. Listen,listen,listen

Steve