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Little Giant NOS DAC mini review

I bought this dac a few months ago from Aliexpress. It is a 47 Labs clone with a Philips TD1387 chip in non-oversampling mode.

It also employs a variant of the Pass output buffer, and utilizes a sole S/PDIF coaxial input.

When using this dac with my computer, differing levels of digital distortion were clearly present, with the best digital files having the least. The results were good to terrible.

But when I use my Carver MV5 cd player as a transport, I get much different and improved results.

Not only is the distortion reduced to a tolerable level, the sound is warmer and smoother, with a good soundstage and imaging.

I would also say that it is closer to analog than my old Micromega Stage 3, while providing more air and apparent resolution.

soundmann
ghdprentice
7,038 posts
 

Thank you for your comments on the Little Giant. Good to hear you are happy with it.

soundmann OP
17 posts
 

Did you really hoped to achieve digital nirvana from a Chinese clone and PC?

 

Well, I knew that computers had noise issues, but didn't realize how bad the issue could be. And why would this dac be the sole exception using the same coaxial source?

soundmann OP
17 posts
 

To add to my observations regarding this dac, I find it to be an accurate one which appears to neither add nor subtract anything from the signal it recieves.

 

I normally don’t champion accuracy in audio components as I prefer those that smooth and sweeten the rough parts of most recordings. But this dac appears to be refined enough to keep things civil and listenable.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,544 posts
 

@soundmann 

I suggest that you use a better streamer with this DAC. Look into iFI Zen streamer. Something like that or Node 2 would net you better sound than using a laptop or PC. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the DAC. 

soundmann OP
17 posts
 

I forgot to mention that I don’t really stream, and that I have a good soundcard.

 

Vinyl and cd’s are my main source of listening.

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