DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac

I have been doing research on this as well. The only way I could figure to get the information is to start throwing money at the situation.

So far I have used the the Monarchy Dip/DAC, Edirol UA-25 feeding a Mcintosh MDA1000, the M-Audio Transit, the Waveterminal, and the MiniDAC. (Also compared them to high end McIntosh CD transport - the computer won).

I set these up on two identical systems (one is mine, one a friends): Apple Mcintosh playing Apple Lossless files to DAC to Mcintosh MC1200s to Mcintosh XRT 28s.

The only real standout so far was that the Transit sounded BAD on several different Apple Macintosh systems, and the MiniDAC drops the USB signal about six times a day (Apogee says it is my computer). I will do more in depth listening next week.

The consensus seems to be that it is best to avoid SPDIF and toslink connections. Does anyone know of a high quality USB device that will supply digital output via an XLR balanced connection?

The Edirol is probably the best choice for iMac. An AES/EBU interface can easily be added to the Edirol with mods, as well as improving its jitter performance. Just a short cable hanging from it with a XLR connector attached.

BTW - Edumke - Did you try iTunes with the Transit with an iMac?

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

Steve,

I tried the Transit on two separate Apple systems myself, and had several friends come to the same conclusion on different systems.

My tests were on a Powermac dual 1.42 G4 to the Transit, then in to a Monarchy DIP/DAC.

Also a Powerbook G4 to the Transit, then to a McIntosh MDA1000 DAC.

In both cases the music sounded like it was castrated.

Ed

If I were using the analogue out for these cards, I think the quality and what you pay would pretty much determine it.

Where I am unsure, is if you are just passing the signal through to a DAC, can these units make that much of a difference in sound quality? It sounds from Edumke that the answer is definitely yes. I love the description of the Transit as castrated, that's a good one :)

Edumke I am glad you are able to do some testing for us, how would you describe the waveterminal and edirol sound, as compared to the M-audio? (I would assume the mini-DAC would blow these away because it is five times the price.) I like the sound I am getting now with my Transit, because I don't know anything different, but I would love to get a little more space in music. I mainly listen to classical music. I am getting great detail now but would love a tiny bit more soundstage.

If we were there, would you think that we would throw up our arms, disown our Transits and immediately order an Edirol or Waveterminal? Is this a fairly no brainer upgrade?

Sorry for the length, but you are the first person I have found that has had access to these units and has been able to do some comparison.

Cheers,

Right now I have two systems set up. One with the MiniDAC, the other with an Edirol UA-25. They both sound fantastic. Both are fed by Apple computers playing Apple Lossless files through iTunes.

We thought the Transit sounded great until we compared it to a high end CD transport. We then realized that much of the music was just plain missing. It is not subtle. We replaced it with the UA-25 on one system, and the MiniDAC on another. We are using anolog out on the MiniDAC and digital out on the UA-25. Both sound devine and easily compete with (if not exceed) the high end CD transport. I was surprised that it could make that much difference.

The Waveterminal is still in the box, but I will set it up late next week when I return from travels.

This is incredibly exciting to get this quality out of a computer. I am sure the traditionalists will stick to one CD at a time, swearing that it sounds better than a "computer". Lets face it though, these days most CDs are mastered on computers.