DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac

I have listened to the McIntosh MDA1000 DAC.

The MDA1000 is a bit "smoother" sounding than the Apogee MiniDAC. I love the way both DACs sound, but if I had to pick one to listen to for extended periods, it would be the MDA1000. The MDA1000 also upsamples to 768kHz, and it also cost 8 times more than the MiniDAC. The waveterminal seems to do a great job passing the PCM data to the MDA1000. I did not listen to the Waveterminal built in DACs, nor did I try the Waveterminal upsampling.

I did not do a blind test, so my thoughts are purely subjective.

The set up is: Apple G4 playing Apple Lossless files, USB to Waveterminal, Toslink to MDA1000, McIntosh 1201s, McIntosh XRT28s.

Sounds absolutely fantastic.

Thanks Edumke. It looks like I will be purchasing a waveterminal in the near future. Very cool. My DAC will be much more modest. However, I don't know anything different so I will still enjoy the upgrade.

If you can recall or could do a quick test, do the Edirol and the Waveterminal have pretty much the same quality when passing the signal through to the DACs? They are about the same price, but if one is definitely better than the other I would pick it.

If they are similar, I like the Waveterminal because it is smaller and doesn't have extra features I don't need. However, quality comes first.

Dshea_32665, I have set up two nearly identical systems. One I set up for my friend, the other is mine. The only difference is that I am using the Waveterminal, and he has the Edirol UA-25.

Since the systems are set up miles apart, I cannot give you a side by side comparison, but after hearing both extensively, I would say that there is no difference.

What is fascinating to me is the difference between the MiniDAC and the McIntosh MDA1000. Switching between the two, the music sounds much different. The MDA1000 does just what they advertise; the music is smoother, less harsh, much more pleasant to listen to for extended periods. I have read numerous reviews that describe McIntosh as "musical", and that is precisely it.

Having said that, the MiniDAC might be described as ultra clear.

Both are fantastic. If I had to pick one, it would be the MDA1000.

For passing the signal through to my DAC, I've been using the waveterminal and like it a lot.

Great guys thanks. Off to ebay to buy a waveterminal. Then I can start thinking about the higher end DAC. I am using a portable AOS Piccolo DAC which is a fantastic unit for the money, but it is nowhere near the price range of those being described here.