I need DAC help

Rides2Work - $1000 for a DAC is a very nice budget. Of course there will be some who sniff dismissively at the paltry sum. Might want to save some of those $ for a decent USB cable. Good values are out there for DAC and cable.

I agree with Willie on the Schiit products. A Gungnir is where I went after the V-DAC.

Plenty of info and comparisons on the internet. See stuff by John Darko Digital Audio Review.

Good luck and have fun.

Ghosthouse - good call on the usb cable - I forgot about that

FWIW - I just had a friend try my 1 meter DH Labs USB priced at $70 - he's now selling his Kimber Silver USB 2 meter cable priced at $299 - we both agreed the DH Labs was more detailed and smoother.

DH Labs seem to make pretty darn good products for a reasonable price - My DH Labs Optical cable blew my Chord optical cable away.

What power cable are you using on the Gungnir - stock or third party?

regards...

Willie - I put a Pangea 14SE on it. I have a Shunyata Venom 3S I could try but haven't so far. Music Direct had the Shunyatas on sale a few weeks back. My USB is a 2M Kimber that I got some years ago. I needed a longer length so I just ordered a silver plated 3M Pangea (PCOCC w/4% Ag). Very inexpensive We'll see how that goes. Interested in your comments about the DH Labs USB. I'm thinking about a Coax from them. Hope this is of help to the OP. Cables: Power cord, USB, ICs (& Coax, maybe).

I hadn't even given any thought to USB cable. I thought digital signal cables either work or they don't. I think this audio hobby stuff is a disease and the treatments and prescriptions are very expensive...
Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to incorporate that into my search. I wish there was a retailer close by that could or should I say would steer me. That's why I turn to the forum. This is a great place for advice.

Thanks to all!

Rides - its definately a case of cables matter, but asynch transfer helps
also. The treatments don't have to be expensive - just informed :-)

I tried a couple of computer USB cables before settling on the DH Labs -
what a difference !

Ghosthouse - I've recently heard of a budget coax cable when fitted with
Copper Harmony rca's from Keith Louis Eichman Innovations that
outperformed a very expensive digital coax - I have tried them and they
worked very well on the coax cable I used for 16/48 kHz, alas I don't have a
digital source with a higher sample rate with spdif link so I don't know the
result for hi-res files.

I just tried a power cord experiment that surprised me - I bought a 12
gauge power cable from Lowe's (like Home Depot), - stripped the outer
sleave and brainded the 3 internal conductors an added some cheap
connectors ($20 for the pair)- to my surprise it performed extremely well -
very close to a very good quality cable - cost $35 for 6 ft - sounded good
on the Bifrost :-)

Regards