The M-Audio USB Audiophile sounds pretty good, but a little on the "dark"
side. I'm not satisfied -- I'm looking for better options. I think a good solution might be to use something like the M-Audio USB Audiophile to take the digital feed from the computer, then run a SPDIF from the M-Audio USB Audiophile to either a good DAC like your Theta or to a pre-amp with a good DAC. Haven't tried that yet. Otherwise, I am very curious about the Apogee Mini-Dac. If you could find a good USB DAC, you could skip having to use a pre-amp, you could go right from the DAC to the amplifier. The Mini-Dac has gotten great reviews, but I'd feel better if I could hear a review from it from someone here on the 'Gon. The M-Audio USB Audiophile goes for around $200, the Apogee Mini-Dac goes for around $1,000.
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Check this out:
http://www.audiomidi.com/common/cfm/product.cfm?pid=386 |
Here's another one -- quite expensive:
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/minidac.php |
You've got me a little worried. I have a 1.25 GHz G4 Powerbook and just got the M-Audio USB Audiophile. Hope it doesn't crash my computer. What do you mean when you say, "crash." You mean, like, have to re-boot, or do you mean, like, have to take it in for repair? You've also got me looking for other sound-cards just in case this thing causes problems. The Apogee sounds like a nice unit, but it costs $1,000+. I'll be curious to hear if others know of alternative USB or Firewire DA sound cards that are Mac compatible. |
After reading up on the Apogee Mini-Dac, I am all but sold. It is expensive, but it sounds like the real deal for turning one's computer into a digital transport with a digital output via USB and converting the digital into high quality analogue. If the M-Audio USB Audiophile isn't all it is cracked up to be, the Apogee will be my next stop.
You can get the Apogee Mini-Dac for around $1,000, get the Mackie HR824's used for around $1,000, use your existing computer for a transport and have a great stounding system for less than the $2,500 you were going to spend.
The Apogee is extremely Mac Compatible. You don't even need to install a driver. I've read that the Mac will recognize the Apogee upon installation and away you go.
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My M-Audio USB Audiophile came with a driver that had to be installed before the computer would recognize it. |
I'm having a similar problem with my M-Audio USB Audiophile DAC. It either crashes my computer and I have to reboot, or else it causes a condition where none of my other programs will open. I'm a tad frustrated. You said yours sounds great -- I haven't even been able to listen to mine. Arghh!!! |
Don't know what I did, but I tried it again tonight and it is working beautifully.
Wow -- having a DAC outside the computer makes a really nice difference.
Increased dynamics, air, detail, musicality -- the works. Now, if it sounds THIS good with the M-Audio USB Audiophile DAC, I wonder how much better
the Apogee would sound......
I'm sick I tell you.
But seriously, with this kind of device, I'm more convinced than ever that
hard drive is THE solution for music storage. You can rip a huge collection of CD's to a hard drive uncompressed, play them through an external DAC and get CD quality music. This sounds better than my old Yamaha s2300 Universal player, which is a $1,000 player. It would take a pretty serious CD player to beat this set-up. And -- that's with this $175 DAC.
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I installed the drivers, but I read in several places that the drivers were not needed. My next step was going to be to remove the drivers I had installed.
First I turned my computedr off. Next, I connected the M-Audio DAC and powered it up. Then, I turned the computer on and booted it up. Under system preferences -- sound -- output -- I select M-Audio. Then, under general system preferences, I also have an M-Audio logo. I clicked on that and chose Analogue output by checking the box next to it and taking the checks out of all the other boxes. Then, I checked the box marked 24 bit. Now, it works beautifully -- no more crashes. Not sure what I did that was different from before or if it just took turning the computer on and off a certain number of times before it straightened itself out. I'm not sure whether the driver was necessary, or not. It sounds really good. Big improvement. |
Update --- I connected the M-Audio USB Audiophile to my Mac G4 and then used the SPDiF output to feed the signal in digital to a Proceed AVP2, using the DAC is the Proceed -- this sounds way better. For a comparison, it beats the hell out of a $400 Denon CD/DVD player. For casual listening, I could live with this sound. |
Update -- Bought an Apogee USB Mini-Dac. This is waaaay better than the M-Audio Audiophile! The M-Audio introduced time smear. Apogee has a better clock solution, smear is gone, full, rich, detailed sound, deep wide holographic sound stage -- I've found what I'm looking for! The Apogee cost $976, which is about five times what the M-Audio USB DAC cost, but I couldn't be happy with the M-Audio DAC -- I am really pleased with the sound of the Apogee. You can go from your computer, to the Apogee, to your amp or powered speakers --- no need for a pre-amp. |
Yes, the Apogee, like the M-Audio, has an SPDiF out. I tried using the SPDiF out on the M-Audio, plugging it into a digital input on my Proceed AVP2 and it did not sound good, which is surprising since the Proceed has very good DAC's and usually makes low end gear sound much better. I haven't tried the SPDiF out on the Apogee yet. I've been listening to it non-stop since I got it on Monday. Today, I plugged the balanced XLR outputs into my Levinson mono-blocks and into my Monitor Audio Studio 60's -- sounds great! The G4 and Apogee make a really satisfying front end. Musical as hell, the imaging is really delightful, I find myself glued to it. I am now going to rip my entire 1,000+ CD collection to an external hard drive, uncompressed, and use this for high quality casual listening in the family room. Convenience with very little compromise! |
For DD and DTS, I believe you'll need a different type of sound card. You can connect a Mac G4 powerbook to some types of displays and watch DVD's and you can play the sound through the Apogee DAC in two-channel, but for multi-channel, DD, DTS, etc -- you'll need a different kind of DAC. |
