I think I'll amp this thing with a Voyager, see how that goes.
When I get both of them that is.

Tested this USB with Fireye I amp, surprisingly good and out of my expectation. I am using FA-003 headphone for testing, vocal is full of emotion, wet and details, bass adequate.

Anyhow, this DAC not so good with fast tempo type of music, for jazz and acoustic its good..

Anyone tried modding it?

Change the caps to Pana FM or Rubycon caps?

Emm looks like the dac not fast enough, but wet is good. I am getting this as second hand from forumer here, should reach today hehe.

It's when I pair it with Fireye amp, but not bad when use it alone. Seriously its not that slow and it won't be notice normally. I only can sense it when I use it with my ddm where it might smear the detail a bit, not serious though.
For the price, very acceptable and since its a mini card, the signature of burr brown is quite clear, good for those that wish to try it.

People who didn't amp this little stuff please do not complain, I am now using this with only Fiio E3 and px100, and its already a very good combination.
Yes i upgraded from Asus Xonar U1 as well, but now only complain will be the user friendliness. I have to go to foobar to adjust volume, the asus does has it's own volume control.

Generally, sound more naturally, most importantly bass now is very clear and not overkill. Most computer sound card has the issue of giving fake bass to thump the gamer, and all this is killing the music. This card is dedicated for music, and the sound stage is also more comfortable that you could enjoy listening without feeling music drowning on you.

If possible, don't reduce the volume from the windows, let it be max( 0dB) and
control the volume over your amplifier. The volume control in windows is software
based, every 6dB of decrement will make you lost 1bit of resolutions.

WARNING: Other sound effect other than the foobar will be very loud if you do as following:

For people using foobar, I have a solution for this to get back the lost resolution

Go to preference-> Playback -> ReplayGain->Preamp
Set the both with rg info and without rg info to -20.0db (Left most position)

Then go to your windows volume and set it to max. Now you will control the volume through the foobar and not from windows.
Another info is ASIO driver support this DAC very nicely, you get even cleaner sound from ASIO. For ASIO installation please ask uncle google.
Thanks chchyong89 to point this out, now it's there is really fine sound flowing into my ears.

This post has been edited by ssyycc: Nov 25 2010, 02:12 PM

it does not matter. You should not control your volume using software attenuation because you'll lose bit resolution no matter what.



The best way is still to use an amplifier and control the volume using that device. As for clipping prevention, all you have to do is to replaygain all your songs (prevent clipping mode) and they'll be fine.

I tried out the software attenuation through foobar and ASIO is way better than the master volume. My assumption is that ASIO might have solve this issue because ASIO could bypass windows audio driver and interact directly with the DAC.
This is still a better solution who has no other option. That's why I put my experiment result and not just theory. Please try this and let me know the result.

You shouold change your widnows sound scheme to "no sounds" so you wont get surprises sound effect other than nice music.

This post has been edited by ssyycc: Nov 25 2010, 04:04 PM

so this is the best way for people who don't own an amp?

Just try it yourself if you can hear difference, if got improvement then you shall live with it for a while. If you hear no difference then can always use back the master volume.

This post has been edited by ssyycc: Nov 25 2010, 05:02 PM

So with an amp, what would be the best?

take note.

all volume to max

replaygain your songs to prevent clipping


use the amp to control your output.

Oh ok.

Just curious, is burr brown DAC features "detail and clean" presentation? I am not used to the sound signature with burr brown chip but I can sense that AKM4396 in prodigy HD2 is smoother but not as detail as this USB DAC (BB chip)

How should I say, when I listen through this USB DAC, I will focus on details presented but I never do that on Prodigy HD2. For me it's kinda analytical while HD2 really present the song with emotion.

I know it's kinda unfair to compare it with HD2, just curious whether it's the sound signature of BB chip. I listened to my friend's STX, also very very detail and impressive, but cold sounding.

Any pro can enlighten me on this?

I prefer not to use ReplayGain at all, since I consider it altering the original sound.

it does not.

It only normalize the internal gain.

In fact, sometimes if you don't use it, the clipping will ruin your original signal.

I have pcm1793 which is burr brown chip as well, what I can say when compare to this pcm2704, their sound signature is similar but the higher end pcm1793 is very very detail and when resolving 24bit then you start thinking about analog vs digital sound.
pcm2704 has good detail, very neutral but still sound digital (cold) to me.

Yes it takes me lot of time to get used to this sound signature, but once you brain accept it, you will start enjoying all the music with emotion.
When testing dac, must allow time for yourself to get use to the new sound, if after few days you still don like it then you need another dac. Don just listen to few songs and decide which is better.