Pure Ipod Dock External DAC Recommendations

[Deleted User]

nap wrote: »

I hooked up the dock and tried it with my classic last night. I am not sure exactly what Gen my classic is (I tried looking it up). It was purchased in June 2009 and is 120 GB if that helps. Anyway, it worked just fine with the dock and with the remote. The dock and remote are a fine product. Much better than the dock I had. The sound quality was greatly improved, very detailed but perhaps a little bright sounding. I hooked up the dock with a pair of quality interconnects (name left off to avoid a cable feud) rather than the cables provided with the unit. This is a $99 dollar product so the DAC is okay but not great. When used in the little two channel system (think of a garage type system - Technics 30 WPC analog receiver and Polk bookshelves) I have it connected to, it is a vast improvement. I am greatly interested in buying an upgraded DAC (recommendations ?) and trying this out in my theater set-up for background fodder. My verdict - YEP for $99 clams it is a heck of a purchase.

Anyone have any recommendations for an external DAC for use with this ?

BlueFox

nap wrote: »

Anyone have any recommendations for an external DAC for use with this ?

I just posted this in your other thread.

As you know, there are beau coup DACs around, and, since the industry is moving toward separate digital components, there will be even more in the future. Hopefully, better and less expensive. Ahh, the benefits of having separate components. :biggrin:

Anyway, as with everything else, it depends on what your goal is, and what you want to spend. For myself, I originally started with a Benchmark DAC1 for my Wadia/iPod Classic. Worked great. A little over a year ago I upgraded to the Bryston BDA-1 DAC, and love that even more. It is 'softer' and more 'musical' to my ears than the Benchmark.

[Deleted User]

BlueFox wrote: »

I just posted this in your other thread.

As you know, there are beau coup DACs around, and, since the industry is moving toward separate digital components, there will be even more in the future. Hopefully, better and less expensive. Ahh, the benefits of having separate components. :biggrin:

Anyway, as with everything else, it depends on what your goal is, and what you want to spend. For myself, I originally started with a Benchmark DAC1 for my Wadia/iPod Classic. Worked great. A little over a year ago I upgraded to the Bryston BDA-1 DAC, and love that even more. It is 'softer' and more 'musical' to my ears than the Benchmark.

Cool, I'll check those out. What kind of $$$ are we looking at ?

BlueFox

List price is from around 1K for the basic Benchmark DAC1, to a bit over 2K for the Bryston. There are plenty of other less expensive DACs, but I only have experinece with these two. There have been past DAC threads with other products discussed.

Systems

and Polk bookshelves

Nice save there!

If I was In the market, I would Look at the Bel Canto, or PS audio Dig link III for the money.
Looking for a usb, do a search for the Stello U2.
It may behoove (yeah! finally got to use it in a sentence!) you to look at a usb/spdif/analog dac.
May be the best of all in the long run.
If I had your massive amounts of cash reserves Patrick, I would buy the DCS Edgar!

[Deleted User]

pepster wrote: »

If I had your massive amounts of cash reserves Patrick, I would buy the DCS Edgar!

Patrick ?????

kn505

I have an iPod dock connected to a Maverick Audio Tubemagic D1. It is my only experience with DAC. I do like the sound from it.
Here is the detailed review from the forum member:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98390

[Deleted User]

kn505 wrote: »

I have an iPod dock connected to a Maverick Audio Tubemagic D1. It is my only experience with DAC. I do like the sound from it.
Here is the detailed review from the forum member:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98390

Nice review and thanks for the link. Did anyone else try this one out ? :cool:

shack

BlueFox wrote:

List price is from around 1K for the basic Benchmark DAC1, to a bit over 2K for the Bryston. There are plenty of other less expensive DACs, but I only have experinece with these two. There have been past DAC threads with other products discussed.

Is it just me...or does the thought of pairing a $99 iPod dock with a $1,000-$2,000 DAC seem a little "unbalanced"?

Face

Cambridge DacMagic or Musical Fidelity V-Dac.

A Benchmark DAC for a garage rig, come on now.

BlueFox

shack wrote: »

Is it just me...or does the thought of pairing a $99 iPod dock with a $1,000-$2,000 DAC seem a little "unbalanced"?

Depends. The DAC is the primary component that determines the sound quality. If the $99 dock is providing an error free, low jitter signal then a good DAC is a great investment. The level of the rest of the system is a better method for determining the DAC than the price of the dock.