Budget USB DAC

You are correct Riffer. I just went back in and re-read the UHF review on the Thingee. They were running the signal to another DAC.

Think I'll just go out and spend $20 on a Xitel HiFi-Link™ Audio Processor and be done with it.

I'm getting a Blue Circle USB Thingee. This is the info I got from the Blue Circle dealer:

The DAC in the Blue Circle USB Thingee can most certainly be used in lieu of an external DAC. In the UHF review they seemed to focus primarily on using the USB Thingee as an alternative to a dedicated CD transport or CD player. The reason why many folks have used this approach is they can take advantage of the added convenience that the computer-based system provides (large library of music online).

From an audible perspective the integrated 24-bit DAC in the USB Thingee is quite good. In terms of noise floor & overall sound quality it is a noteworthy improvement over the typical soundcard in the PC.

I'll do an update next week after I've had a few nights with the USB Thingee doing some comparissons. I'm sure it's going to be much better than the Soundcard to pre-amp connection I'm using now. I'll be sure to use the ASIO driver also. (I have a PC not a Mac.)

Sorry for the misinformation, I didn't realize there where RCA and headphone outputs on the Blue Circle.

Let us know how it sounds.

Oh no problem Riffer. This is a learning process for all of us.

I'm planning on doing an A/B/C comparison of Wav, Apple lossless, and my normal ~320k or VBR files.

I have the Blue Circle USB Thingee up and running. I am running off the headphone jack into my preamp.

Initial impression is awesome for the money I spent. A lot of dynamaic range, really clean bass. I have not begun the A/B/C testing yet.

I can understand why UHF mag ran it into another DAC, to get more gain out of the unit. It runs fine in stand-alone mode though.

I got a gold palted 3ft USB cable (from the Shack) to go from the puter to the Thingee. I'll replace the headphone cable later on, or switch to the RCA jacks.

Make sure you set all your volumes in the system settings on your PC to the max.

It truly is ALL in the music!