FlymetotheMoon

I hate it when i do this.................

As far as stand alone dacs the only one i owned was a Cambridge Stream magic 6v2(wolfson chip). I did try outs with the onboard dac of my Oppo 103 (Cirrus Logic chip), onboard dac of my Anthem MRX 500, onboard dac of my integrated amp. When i bought the 280D i was looking at Chore 2qute, Teac ud-503, Schiit Gumby and Ygrd but i couldnt audition any of them.

Had mine for a month now and i really love it. It was exactly what i was looking for and a very good match to my system which is the most important factor.

You should take a look at the Simaudio Moon 380D, has all you want and sonic sig i think you are looking for and with the canadian $ being so low you should be able to get a great deal

What's your point?

did you install the Simaudio driver on your pc? And also in JRiver, Simaudio recommends using wasapi settings. And please before using any eq make sure everything is setup properly. I find that eq kills the beauty of the 280d and remember the breaking in period. What is Darkstar by the way?

If you want to know more about Simaudio from actual owners go to Canuck audio mart website in the forum section

By the way you do know that moon audio has nothing to do with Simaudio

The only thing I will say about cables is I buy mine from Blue Jeans cable. Very good qualité and no nonsense prices with an astounishing service

Simaudio is made in Canada about 2hrs from where I live and are very well known in Canada and in hi fi circles. The 280d is kind of cumbersome and wheighs 16pnds not the Best idea to carry around but feasable and yes just plug and plan. But I ll go along with Jeff and tell you that you might be better off with thé 230had

I was at exactly the same place as you until yesterday when i made my final choice. I cannot tell you anything about the Teac ud 503 other than it looks promising but assembly seems shoty, 5000 units were recalled, and i'm already seeing price drops wich is kind of unusual for a brand new product. I bought the 280d yesterday, the chip is ESS 9018, and i will tell you this: I'm not listening to computer files anymore, i'm earing music for the first time in a long time. This dac is really impressive straight out of the box. Bass is very precise and punchy, highs are precise and natural. Prior to the 280d i was using a Cambridge Stream magic 6v2, let me tell you that everybody who say that all dacs sound identical would crap in their pants if they experienced the results i did. I dont know what chip is in the Oppo, i know it's a Ess sabre chip. I've been researching all over the net for the last 2 months on wich dac to choose and i can only say one thing: dont put too much into chip brand, i have red countless times that Sabre ESS chips make bright almost harsh dacs wich is why it took me so long to make up my mind. I think it's more about chip integration to the rest of the dac. Has for selling the Oppo to buy the 280d i think you would need to do a home listening try out. It's hard for me to explain how good the 280d really is. My two cents.