Best budget DAC


Hi all,

I'm considering a DAC for my system and I have to keep the expenditure very reasonable (under $300).

DACS considered: Audioengine D1, Audioquest Dragonfly, Cambridge Audio DACMagic XS & Azur DacMagic 100, Musical Fidelity - V90-DAC,  Schiit Modi,

Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated, especially if you have actually heard or compared the DACs above, or others.

Also, if I do get a DAC, is there any advantage to ripping a CD and then playing the FLAC/WAV file through the DAC? Keep in mind that the DAC chip in my CD Player is listed as a "24/192 Cirrus Logic Delta/Sigma", but no specific chip number.

I haven't seen any comparisons of CD's to ripping and playing the file through an outboard DAC, so if you have seen such a comparison, your link to it would be greatly appreciated.

These are the components in my system:
Speakers - Elac B6
Subwoofer - Elac S10
CD Player - NAD C 516BEE CD Player
Preamplifier - Parasound Halo P5
Power Amplifier - Rotel RB-1080

 Thanks. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

128x128edincleve
Edincleve, perhaps you could mention why you are choosing to not employ the built in DAC of the P5.  Did you try it and not like it?  

I'd be cautious of the Emotiva products.  The DAC of their I had was not very good sounding in some applications.  Also their house sound tends to be somewhat bright, not organic.   The Schitt stuff is very well regarded for the money.
+1 runnin, I have been wondering the same. Another poster asked the same and we haven’t heard back on this. I doubt any of the DACs mentioned would be better than the that in the P5. Different maybe. Would require an additional cable. Which one?

Actually I have tried the built-in DAC of the Parasound P5 by connecting the digital output (coax) of the NAD  C516BEE cd player to it.  I found the P5 DAC to be slightly better sounding than the NAD DAC.

I think the P5 DAC is decent, but it is a DAC built into a good $1000 preamp. How much of that $1000 do you think is dedicated to the DAC. Since the sound of the preamp, and the quality in general, is pretty good, it's hard too believe that Parasound would expend much of their parts dollars to the DAC. I may be wrong, but that's my feeling.

I love the preamp, but that's why I thought I might be able to improve my system, without spending a lot of money, with a better DAC.

At this point though, I will probably wait until Elac/Andrew Jones introduces their new 3-way Uni-Fi speakers. They use an aluminum 5" woofer with a concentric mid/tweeter. Anyone hearing them at CES, liked or raved about them. The bookshelf will sell for $500/pair. I'm hoping that the weaknesses of the Elac B5 (high end roll-off and resolution of individual instruments) will be overcome by the UB5.
edincleve, the point is that the P5 DAC will still be at par if not better than most $300 outboard DACs. The Burr-Brown PCM1798 is a decent one and Parasound is known for building quality products designed to last for a very very long time.

I sold my P5 and instead bought a Cambridge Audio Azur 851D DAC which originally sold for $1600 but was marked down to $995. So far I can tell you that, at least in my system, it's not that much better than the P5. Of course, YMMV.
I agree with edincleve, and remember that the built in DAC likely doesn’t require its own power supply, analog output stage, and housing that the $300 stand alone DAC does. What percentage of cost of a stand alone DAC in dedicated to the D to A conversion? I believe that to get a stand alone DAC that would be more than ‘slightly’ better than that found in the NAD player (which has a DAC that likely equals many $300 ones) would cost about as much as the P5 does. 

I might suggest that you listen to your NAD via the P5 for some time and try to determine what you would like to improve in the sound. You might then be able to better find an external DAC that improves in the right sonic directions.  From everything I have read I believe you have an excellent full functionPre/DAC combo for your $$$. You can improve your digital front end, however you likely will need to save/spend more dollars. 

I might add that it my general opinion, given as a response in other threads, that I prefer an external DAC to having one built into a pre or integrated. I value the positives of upgrade flexibility, and isolation of devices over that of shelf space or simplicity. That doesn’t make me right/wrong, just my opinion.