Hello Everyone,
Ahead of this holiday weekend, my mind is wandering again to "Bargain Basement, Giant Killing DACs" where I am amazed to see that > 8 years have passed since I first posted this thread.
I don't remember if I had yet purchased what has become my daily driver for PC and television: an Antelope Audio Zodiac +. Generally, I love using it as a DAC and a preamp when I am at my desk for long hours.
As an experiment (and reviewing SFAR's suggestion) I also dug out an old NuForce UDAC from storage with some decent cables and plugged it into my same system.
Although I always enjoyed traveling with that device for laptops and headphones on airplanes etc, it sounds very hard, less spacious and instantly fatiguing compared to the Zodiac - at least on my desktop with near field monitors. So back to the Giant Killers!
Maybe 8 years later, there are some new ideas or even lower prices on previous suggestions? Would love to know, especially with basic switching / attenuation to eliminate the need for a preamp. Extra credit for DSD.
cwlondon