page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?
I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp. Externally power via AC adapter.
I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones
A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you. Anyone have any experience with that?
I own the audio-gd FUN and love it!. I have had it for a year or 2 now. I use it daily. I have the older unit which was limited to 16/48 on the USB. The new version does 24/96 on the USB. Has toslink and coax in as well. DAC out, Pre-Amp out etc. 2 gain types as well. I use mine as just a DAC. No remote. You can mix and match chips etc that they offer on the site.
I had no problems dealing with them in China and the unit was delivered quickly.
Looks like a nice product, but that website inspires zero confidence. Is there anything comparable that's US-made? Other than the Grace 902/903, which is looking increasingly attractive...?
yeah, I know. it's ugly as sin, but their stuff is well regarded over at head-fi.
If that isn't your cup of tea, an idea I just thought of would then be the
schiit asgard and use your usbpre2 as the DAC with the aux outs. I did that with my fiio e9 for a while when I was using headphones which were low impedance and high sensitivity (because the usbpre2's headphone jack hisses when paired with high sensitivity phones).
I actually get more use from my usbpre2 as an audio interface/dac/headamp then I do in the field as a recording preamp/adc. It's the best DAC I had at my disposal (versus the onboard laptop, the zero 192, an ibasso D10, and even better than the Grace 901), and it's not a slouch. I'm not sure it would trump the DAC section of a newer 902 or 903 which have upgraded DAC stages compared to the original 901, but you already own a usbpre2 so the cost is vastly different compared to a 902/903...
There are two reasons I didn't pick up the Asgard. First was that my current headphones (the Audeze LCD-2) are a lowish impedance but require gobs and gobs of current to drive, the two conditions that SD says are optimum for using the headphone stage of the usbpre2 (low impedance and low sensitivity). The LCD-2s are pitch black quiet with the usbpre2, but I catch the same hiss like others have reported with my Denon 7000s. Second, I already had the fiio which while not my favorite piece of gear, performs well with my Denons for the price I paid. If I didn't have the fiio, I probably would have baught one.