ITX PC / WiiM Pro - Mola Mola Makua - Apollon NCx500+SS2590 - Thiel CS3.7 => (loading) March Sointuva AWG Hi, I'm a DA-9 earlyish adopter and have posted at length about it's performance and I am no expert on your amplifier.

Lastly I believe just getting A30 is also an option, but I cannot find A30 operate as DAC with FIXED RCA output to the Edifiers, so that's a challenge? wow this is crazy... are you running it with analogous inputs? when i turn the da-9 beyond 60 the hiss gets so loud that you'd even hear it vom 20 meters away A DAC or whatever method of single ended input you are using will make a huge difference to what the amplifier produces and amplifies. I keep the volume always below 34 that is more than enough for normal listening in the living room.Am I better off getting a nice USB DAC and pairing it with a bare bones Class D AMP? Size is a bit of an issue since this is for my computer desk setup. edited) my focusrite usb interface seems to have a decent amount of hiss, so it overtakes the amp hiss at a volume of 31 (of 70), but this is still plenty. Of course, 'best' sound quality will differ depending on the application and setup. Here is my usage scenario - any custom advice would be awesome but feel free to skip this: How is the hissing on your DA-9? i've heard people reapplying thermal paste and it disappeared completely? But i don't want to do that yet as long as i could still return it...

On top of that, the unit seems to have a rather significant level of hiss when not playing anything. I'm using the optical input and the noise is the same regardless of whether or not the cable is even plugged in. I'm surprised they don't just stop the output amp when no data is coming in, since this is a class D amp and could theoretically not output any noise in that case. Long winded, but the point is that the answer is all of the above of what you've stated and others have stated is important. Current setup is (was) Mac Mini -> SMSL Q5 via USB -> Q Acoustics 2010i. I say was because the SMSL Q5 died after about 6 years of use, so currently in the market for a DAC + AMP. It's a modest desktop setup in a small room for casual listening. Hi... anyone else had the issue where it just starts playing static noise instead of whatever it is you're playing?At times I connect my Bose NC700 to the DAC and it provides decent sound. I don't play very loud but the quality is good. The dac also remembers volumes when switching between input sources. Hello all guys, sorry for my english, we are discussing on a forum about usb imput. Please could someone confirm us that the usb imput will use alc4050 as dac chip and NOT use dac chip es9023? Or alc4050 is just a converter that coincidentally use es9023 imput? The first pair of speakers I'll be test-hearing are the Nubox 383, but I'd be happy about speaker suggestions around 350-500€ (max 600 if they are a real "killer" value).... Dynaudio Emir M10 (570€) ?

I have an idea on this issue. If I want to build a new small sound system for a small room which one is better. I am 69 years old now. But I can clearly see the difference in sound between the internal DAC and the external DAC, and the difference is big for me.

I was weighing between because MX5 provides many things in one. So if I were to use it in the future for passive speakers I can continue to benefit from MX5. I have seen quality issues in e.g. Topping DX3Pro+ volume controls. I used analogies in the hopes that it might be a little bit easier to understand what steps to take. A 20 year old amplifier is a totally different design from modern amplifiers that are Class-D. They have capacitors. One of the worlds most famous higher quality electrolytic capacitors state that all of their electrolytics have a lifespan of 10 years since the date of production. They break-down chemically over time.