Help choosing a DAC for laptop

Definitely don't get too stuck in to the spec. I recently tested the Audiolab M-DAC which has the ESS9018 DAC chip whereas the Resonessance Invicta had only the ESS9016 for the headphones and sounded way better! So it should for the price but my point is the DAC chip alone wont tell you a lot. You will see this crossover in price on the low end too.

I recommend looking at as many reviews as you can and bass the responces on price but if you can test any out before buying that would be a huge advantage (I know that's really hard). I am pretty happy with the 3 that I have although still putting the D7 through it's paces really. 

You might find the list of available DAC/amps I made useful, here's a link...

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/dacs/usb-dac-headphone-amplifiers-list?page=2#comment-2711321

Demoing these things does seem difficult especially as most of the ones I am looking at seem to be from online retailers.

Thanks for the list of Dacs looks really useful and gives me plenty of options to look at. The variation in price is confusing though when kit with apparently similiar components varies so much in price. Choosing a soundcard was easy there were basically two to choose from the Asus STX and the X-Fi Titanium HD both are about the same price and spec. With Dacs there are dozens to choose from and go from ridiculoulsy cheap to crazily expensive.

My budget is anything from £100 - £300 so I guess I just need to start there and hunt down some reviews and concentrate on them rather than the specs so much.

You'd be hard pressed to find anything better than the Musical Fidelity M1 dac at that price, top end admittedly. Have a Google and there is plenty of info on them.

...Also worth reading our review of the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100, and the conclusions therein.

I would always recommend the Beresfords too.

I have both the original 7510 and a tweaked version of the 7520, which gives you USB, optical and coax inputs as well as a very good headphone socket.

The latest version is the Caiman.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/beresford-caiman

Thanks for all the suggestions. Some really nice looking kit. Its nice to see some British companies making quality gear and its all very tempting and some promising reviews. However I am thinking, and Andrews suggestion to read the DacMagic review just reinforces this, that I would be wasting my money on something like the Beresford or the DacMagic when I really only need a USB input. I'm unlikely to use the DAC with any other source than a PC or laptop so it feels like my money would be better spent getting the best USB DAC I can for the money rather than an all rounder.

The Streamer II is a srong contender or possibly even the Streamer II+ although I wonder if with my setup I would be able to tell the difference that the extra £140 would be buying. Anyway plenty more options still to look at so back to the forums

Have a good look at this.

http://nwavguy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/odac-released.html

With respect, lots of customers get too tied up in the DAC chipset used - whilst each one has its own characteristics they are rarely the major factor in the performance of the overall box. It's a bit like saying that sevaral different models of car with the same XYZ engine will drive in exactly the same way - it's just not true.

In the case of designing a DAC you also have to consider the way the master clock signal is recovered, the quality of the internal power supplies, digital filters, analogue filters, headphone amplifiers to name but a few variables. Then the circuit board layout is at least as important when connecting all these things together! An inexperienced engineer can ruin the performance of the best parts in the world if he or she doesn't optimise this.

In the case of a DAC that works with USB from your computer the best performance tends to come from those designs that use ATP (asynchronos transfer protocol) in the USB interface. As far as I know the lowest cost model that does this and provides a headphone amplifier is the new Arcam rPAC. I beleive there is a review inthe latest issue of What Hi-Fi? if that helps. My disclaimer is that I was involved in the design of that product and the Arcam rDAC and DAC33 - but at least you now know that I do this stuff for a living

Sincerely,

John Dawson

Thanks for coming and explaining a bit about this stuff John! From my relatively limited experience with DACs I can testify that what you said certainly seems to reflect what I have heard. 

I have been testing the asynchronous iBasso D7 for a couple of weeks now. It's a bit cheaper than the rPAC (if you don't get charged customs tax) and it's pretty good but it has a lot of issues so I would not really recommend it to anyone. If you are looking at asynchronous DACs in this price range then the rPAC looks like the safest and most attractive option. I will be looking to pick one up as soon as I can but my next puchase will probably be the M-DAC.