qba182

Hello everyone, I'm a happy maverick D1 DAC owner. I want to buy active speakers to my set for ~300$. I was thinking of audioengine A5 because of the superb reviews on the net. But it turns out that the A5 isn't equiped in RCA input, while my DAC has only analog RCA output the only option would be a Y adapter that goes from female RCA to a male mini-jack plug. won't this make the sound quality worse? Should I find speakers that could be connected with RCA directly, or should I not bother? Could you give me any alternatives to the A5 in the 300$ price range? I don't have any chance to listen to any speakers, so I can only depend on others opinions. Kuba

Hi Ajax, I've read some reviews of the Maverick D1 Dac and it looks good. Basicly I've almost decided to get the Maveric (my friend will be in Thailand, so maybe even save up on shipping costs). Only one thing I found botters me a bit: "There was information in this thread to get 24-Bit/ 96kHz supposedly bit-perfect working with the USB on the D1. It has since been discovered that even though the rate can be changed, there's some kind of hardware issue (either design or chip limitation) and only 16-Bit / 48kHz is being sent to the DAC itself. Because of this, any other format that's sent through USB is resampled to that. Depending on the format you send, it may noticeably degrade audio quality. However, it should be bit-perfect if you send 16-Bit / 48kHz but there's no real way of knowing." Not quite sure if this could be an issue for me? Ryan assured me, that when I play Lossless the Dac will up-sample it to 24/96. Also do you think it's worth spending 20$ extra for an upgraded tube: http://www.mav-audio.com/store/index.php/tube-magic-dac-d1-5670.html I don't even know what that means. Do you think there will be any differance between the basic version, and the upgrade?

Ok, so how about connecting Audioengine 2 to the Aune? And when my parents come back from work, I could switch to Sen HD205. Do you think this is a good combination? Will the Aune improve the sound of the speakers? Again sorry for the dumb questions, but I don't want to buy equipment, I won't use.

Thanks for your anwsers. I've read a bunch of reviews about the above propositions. Aune seems to be the best quality/value choice, but all comments are related to headphones only. What if in some time I would like buy some mid class speakers (300$?) for my music center (just to listen in my room). Will I require another DAC?

Hello everyone, This is my first post here, so let me just say, that's it's really a great forum and portal with a lot of information. Recently, after I've heard my uncles Yamaha Pianocraft, I decided to upgrade my audio equipment (sennheiser 205 and an laptop integrated sound card(!)). So I've been searching around the web for the best equipment for me, but I'm quite afraid I'll make the wrong choices. So here we go: 1) I'm planning to use a mac mini and sanh205 headphones. In half a year I'm planning to buy speakers. Could you please recommend a DAC (24/96 would be great) for around 200$ (money is a big issue for me, so the cheaper the better). 2) Is the NuForce® Icon any good? I've heard the sensitivity of the speakers connected to the Icon should be between speakers 87 and 92db. will this limit my choice? 3) Do you think I should buy a dac second hand? 4) Is it better to buy a dac, or maybe a HI-FI (something cheaper than my uncles Yamaha) and connect it some way to the mini? 5) When I have a dac, will I need any extra equipment when I decide to buy speakers (nothing fancy most probably)? Sorry, if the below questions seem stupid/trivial, but I'm new and without any practical background. Kuba