Let’s begin! Important Features of a Desktop DAC/Amp To ease your dilemma, we’ve ranked and listed the top 10 desktop DAC/amp combos (both moderately priced and costlier options included) on the market today. It’s clear: you must choose a DAC/amp combo unit that meets your specific needs. Besides navigating technical spec terms like frequency and wattage, core features like connectivity, format support, and your budget must be considered. That said, cutting through the noise and picking a suitable desktop DAC/amp unit that checks all your boxes can be overwhelming. They’re cheaper, more organized, and offer a better channel balance in the sound output. Integrated DAC/amp desktop combos are preferred by many audiophiles (especially beginners) for various reasons. I think you've got your inputs and outputs mixed up.Here’s a rundown of the best desktop DAC/amp combos designed just right for your PC and Mac. So in that case you need pin 2 = signal and pin 1 = ground, with pin 3 going unused.Īnother way of looking at the difference is that this topology has a very low common-mode output impedance, whereas floating topologies have a high common-mode output impedance, so their common-mode voltage can be shifted up and down almost arbitrarily and they won't care. Then you basically have two ground-referenced single-ended outputs with out of phase signals, and neither would be particularly happy if you were to short it out. In an electronically floating oder merely impedance-balanced output you'll want to short 3 and 1 as well.Ī very common output topology, however, is not floating and just takes the unbalanced signal and generates an inverted version to complete the balanced output. If you have a transformer-coupled output, you can pretty much wire up pin 2 = signal and pin 3 = ground and be done with it. You can always adapt an unbalanced output to a balanced input, and if the cabling is done right (which is rare enough) you'll even reap the benefits of the latter.Īdapting balanced outputs is much more tricky, as what you can do and what kind of adapter cabling you need will depend on the circuitry lurking behind the panel. using an XLR to 1/4" adapter on the XLR headphone output of the 789 is a no-no) is it still safe to use the unbalanced output of an amp like the 789 if it's being fed a balanced input? If so, why is that the case but using an XLR to 1/4" adapter is a no-go?Ĭlick to expand.I think you've got your inputs and outputs mixed up. From there, regardless of whether I use the XLR or 1/4" headphone output of the 789, I will still have eliminated any ground loop issues, correct?Īnd another question: I believe that it generally isn't safe to convert a balanced input into an unbalanced output (i.e. I connect my computer to the SU-8 via USB, and then connect the XLR output of the SU-8 into the XLR input of the 789. If I'm understanding this correctly, whether or not you use the balanced headphone output from the amp does not determine whether you reap the benefits of your balanced stack (but the balanced headphone output will usually be more powerful).ĭo I have this right? To illustrate my example a little more specifically, say I have an SMSL SU-8 V2 DAC and Drop THX 789 amp. So as I understand it, the benefit of going balanced is that it will eliminate any ground loop issues you could potentially encounter, and this benefit is only applied if you feed a balanced input from your DAC into the amp (e.g. Quick question regarding balanced amp/DAC stacks:
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