Little dacs to surprise and delight
Oct 31, 2014 13:01:17 GMT
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2014 13:01:17 GMT
Thinking I should have a back-up dac for listening to the audio feed from my LG HDTV's Toslink digital audio interface, I looked around for an inexpensive dac on the well known reseller/retail websites. What my journey of discovery found is a myriad of tiny boxes of differing configurations offering stereo, 5.1 channel and even 7.1 channel Toslink/coaxial inputs to analog outputs....all for really silly little money investment.
For my particular needs, what I settled on is an Orei DA21-X Toslink/Coax inputs to stereo analog rca/stereo mini outputs...for less than $30. This particular model is listed as the "Premium" version of their $22 model...not sure what's premium in actuality but reference is made of better internals. This particular model will only read a PCM signal from the HDTV..and my LG does just that, though there is no information from LG that it does and no software switch to determine it's output config. But, the little Orei DA21-X works with this TV....Yippee
This set-up has the Orei DA21-X sending the LG's toslink output signal to my Croft Micro 25 Basic+ tube (single G.E. 6201) preamp and then sent onwards to either the power amps for speaker listening or my Vincent KHV-111 hybrid (Telefunken ECC-83) headphone amp. And...through either the speakers (ATC SCM-12 SL's) or headphones (AKG-702)...I am hearing a clean, noise-free, dynamic and definitive sound. Imaging is really fine and separation of instruments is good. I'm a bit hesitant in giving "high five kudos" to such an inexpensive digital interface...but it really is a fine sounding unit. Along with AC-DC, Jimi, Cream (yes I'm that old), I also enjoy string quartets, piano trios, violin concerto's...all manner of Classical music...and also, streaming via internet radio stations, Ambient, Chill, and Downtempo music. In a context of presenting accurately a string quartet's individual virtuoso's and their coherence in the quartet setting...this DA21-X from Orei exceeds all of my expectations at the price point of it's ownership.
I am truly amazed what $30 can buy these days in digital interfaces. Not only is this Orei DA21-X a really good back-up if one of my "big boys" goes down for any length of time...but it stands tall on it's own. The only unknown now is it's durability...how long it will last...and time will tell.
Again, there seems to be a myriad of similar style boxes from different companies offering similar performance's to this Orei DA21-X unit..but I just happened to choose this one. I like it..a lot.
For my particular needs, what I settled on is an Orei DA21-X Toslink/Coax inputs to stereo analog rca/stereo mini outputs...for less than $30. This particular model is listed as the "Premium" version of their $22 model...not sure what's premium in actuality but reference is made of better internals. This particular model will only read a PCM signal from the HDTV..and my LG does just that, though there is no information from LG that it does and no software switch to determine it's output config. But, the little Orei DA21-X works with this TV....Yippee
This set-up has the Orei DA21-X sending the LG's toslink output signal to my Croft Micro 25 Basic+ tube (single G.E. 6201) preamp and then sent onwards to either the power amps for speaker listening or my Vincent KHV-111 hybrid (Telefunken ECC-83) headphone amp. And...through either the speakers (ATC SCM-12 SL's) or headphones (AKG-702)...I am hearing a clean, noise-free, dynamic and definitive sound. Imaging is really fine and separation of instruments is good. I'm a bit hesitant in giving "high five kudos" to such an inexpensive digital interface...but it really is a fine sounding unit. Along with AC-DC, Jimi, Cream (yes I'm that old), I also enjoy string quartets, piano trios, violin concerto's...all manner of Classical music...and also, streaming via internet radio stations, Ambient, Chill, and Downtempo music. In a context of presenting accurately a string quartet's individual virtuoso's and their coherence in the quartet setting...this DA21-X from Orei exceeds all of my expectations at the price point of it's ownership.
I am truly amazed what $30 can buy these days in digital interfaces. Not only is this Orei DA21-X a really good back-up if one of my "big boys" goes down for any length of time...but it stands tall on it's own. The only unknown now is it's durability...how long it will last...and time will tell.
Again, there seems to be a myriad of similar style boxes from different companies offering similar performance's to this Orei DA21-X unit..but I just happened to choose this one. I like it..a lot.