This video provides a comparative analysis of over 10 Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) and related audio products, offering insights into their sound quality, features, and value across different price points, with a focus on helping listeners make informed purchasing decisions.
Mind Map
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All right. This is a video you really do
not want to miss because I've listened
with a couple of my friends to over 10
DACs within a span of less than 24
hours. So, I'm going to talk about the
sound difference of these 10 DACs. And
if you hang up till the end of the
video, I'm going to be talking about all
the exciting new products that I'm
actually developing and also some of the
products that coming up that I'm testing
as well. There's some really cool stuff
that you probably don't want to miss.
First, which DACs did we listen to? We
listened to the X30 by Gustard, the Ever
Solo Z10, the DMP-A6 also by Ever Solo,
the Denafrips Terminator. We also
listened to the WiiM Pro, WiiM Ultra,
the Fosi Audio S3, and the Arylic
LE-100. Also, we listened to the
all-in-one as well by Ever Solo. And we
also listened to my Gustard TD-1 DAC.
Basically, we didn't just like listen to
try to compare A and B. So, we had
things set at the same level volume.
I'm very lucky with my preamplifier. I
could actually preset each
compensation if there's any volume
differences. And this way we can listen
to A and B. The first night we actually
was one of my friends we listened to all
the big guys.
He actually brought his Gustard DAC 30
with him and thank you very much for
doing that. And we were able to compare
for example, the DAC 30 to the Ever Solo
Z10 cuz these are very comparable DACs.
We compared them to the Terminator by
Denafrips and to my Gustard TD-1 DAC.
And we kept switching back and forth to
see which one sounded better. Let's
start from the top. Let's compare to the
big guys first cuz this is what probably
most people are interested in. And
between the
If we compare the Ever Solo Z10 to the
Gustard X30, for example, these two are
very very close, neck and neck together.
Uh they're very very similar on the
inside. They both have oven clocks
inside. They both have very good power
supplies. Both have very good output stages.
stages.
And they differ that one has AKM series
chip, the other one has an ESS series
chip. They have four of them each. So,
these are pretty uh you know, and
they're about roughly similar uh price
range, give and take. Uh so, between
those two, it was very tough to pick one.
one.
Uh uh
they're very very close. If you have one
or the other, don't go rushing to buy
the other one because they are very
close. If I were to go and buy one, I
would probably pick the Ever Solo Z10
because it has better
uh UI interface. It has better
connectivity, a little bit. And it was a little
little
For me, it sounded a tiny bit smoother.
My friend dis- disagrees because, of
course, again, he owns the X30. I own
the Ever Solo Z10. But, like I said,
they are very close, and either one you
have, like I said, you'll be very happy.
Uh now, we compared those to the
Denafrips uh Terminator. It's a slightly
different sound. So, now you're trading
a little bit of uh
that crisp, sharp detail to a little bit
of a slightly more smoother all around
DAC. Uh
if I was to listen for hours and hours,
I'll probably pick the Denafrips
Terminator. If I'm going to listen to
about half an hour to an hour, I would
probably pick the Ever Solo Z10. Now, we
also compared them to the Mytek Z1 DAC.
I have to say, this is not a comparison.
You have to be in DIY. You have to be
willing to spend uh you know, quite a
bit of money, and also not much than the
other ones, but for people saying DIY,
oh, you're going to build something for
a couple hundred bucks. No, you're still
spending couple grands at least, but at
least you're going to have a sound that
you cannot buy anywhere else.
The Gustard DDC has this open, uh, you
know, imaging. It's just has a smoother
finish to the sound, and also the
holographic 3D imaging is just you never
hear it than as as the other DAC.
Uh, if you're not familiar with my
Gustard DDC, there's a few videos, I'll
put them in the link, but basically,
it's based on the
uh, TDA 1541A chip, but not in any way.
There's so many you can buy on eBay, but
this one was really sought from the
ground up, takes good power supplies,
and has a lot of features. I'm not going
to go on and on, but anyway, that was if
you want to DIY DAC,
that would be the way I would go. But
again, I am biased, so forget what I'm
saying here.
Let's talk about the other DACs. And
there's a few here that are three close
together, and these are the mid-tier.
And uh, some of them are slightly like
an all-in-one thing. So, we have the
Arylic LP-100,
the Fosi S3, and the Ever Solo Play. All
three, they vary a little bit. I have
reviews about them if you want to listen
to, but they all have very good sound
for that price, and also for being able
to do a lot of things all in one box.
The Fosi and the Arylic both came very
close together. The Arylic has slightly
wider, uh, imaging. The S3 by Fosi Audio
has a slightly smoother sound, but
otherwise, they're very, very close. The
Ever Solo all-in-one, this is a bargain
for any of you wants an all-in-one
budget. It has an amplifier as well. It
sounds good, has good UI. the means user
interface, like a software and all that.
It has great connectivity. It's just
works flawlessly. And even if you own a
CD player, there's an option for that.
For some of you that want just an
all-in-one box, this is a no-brainer.
Now, if you don't want to spend close to
8 700 dollars, the Arylic or the Fosi S3
come a little bit at a cheaper price.
I think the Fosi S3 is a pretty good
bargain cuz it is the lowest price and
still delivers a good bang for the buck.
But, can't go wrong with any of those
three. Now, the DMP-A6 is a little
bracket of a price little higher, so
it's around 900 US dollars. And it's
actually a combination of a DAC and
streamer. It's a beautiful unit and has
that EverSolo user interface. The sound
of it is again sits in between the that
10 and the X6
and the reps and and the lower tier,
which is the Fosis and the Arylic. Now,
when it comes to the WiiM Pro and the
WiiM Ultra, these two I used to love,
but I think they've been surpassed now.
The WiiM Pro and the WiiM Ultra, I
by far prefer the WiiM Pro because with
the WiiM Pro you can change the power
supply and improve the sound
dramatically. With the WiiM Ultra,
you're stuck with that switching power
supply, everything's crammed so close.
The sound it just doesn't deliver. It's
great, it's a beautiful box, a beautiful
screen, everything, but the WiiM Pro, if
you were to choose between the two, save
half the money and get the WiiM Pro. You
won't get the display, but you're going
to get a much better sound. Uh we're not
talking huge sound. Remember, all these
are just small. Most people that have,
you know, a budget speaker won't even
know the difference between any of these
DACs. But once you get a little bit more
refined taste
than and good speakers, good
amplification, then you start to hear
the difference. So, if you are starting
out, don't go start buying the biggest
expensive DAC. Start by buying good
amplification, good speakers, and then
go into the DAC. Otherwise, you're not
going to hear a huge difference.
Now, I'm going to go back to the higher
tier, which is the Ever Solo that 10,
the Gustard DAC-X 30, and the Denafrips
Terminator. These three, they all need
streamers. Uh
they cannot function alone. Actually,
the Gustard DAC-X 3, I believe, has a
built-in streamer, but it's not very
good. As soon as we connected it to the
Ever Solo T8 streamer, it just got a lot
better. So, if you own one of those,
uh the Gustard DAC-X 3, I would
seriously invest in the um Ever Solo T8.
I have nothing to do with them, not
affiliated with these guys, but I just
love their products. Actually, the T8 is
becoming my de facto streamer for pretty
much everything uh these days. I just
love the user interface, love the sound,
and the connectivity. It's just you
cannot beat it. So, bear in mind, you're
not just going to buy a DAC. You still
have to go splurge. So, if you buy
Denafrips Terminator, you're spending
6,000 uh US dollars. You're still going
to go spend close to 1,500 US for to get
the uh the streamer as well. You By the
time you factor taxes and uh tariffs and
blah blah blah and
uh and all these extra charges, you're
looking well into the 8 to close to
9,000 dollars. So,
uh keep all this stuff in mind. So,
we're talking a quite a bit of a
difference. If you are building my
Gapsule TD1 DAC, yes, you can have a way
sound, but it requires quite a bit of
knowledge. You need to be Don't can't
just jump in and build one of those. So,
you have to have some knowledge. It's
going to take a quite a bit of
experience and expertise to do it. A lot
of parts you have to source from here
and there. So, it's not like a one
thing. And you have to know a little
bit. I have a lot of videos tell you
what to do, but you have to have built
something in your life, uh soldered
something. You can't just jump in and
and and and do it. Some people have
tried and eventually they succeeded.
Also, uh you can build those with uh
built-in streamer like a Raspberry Pi.
And you but you have to invest in a
software like Roon or Volumio. Or you
could link it to the Ever Solo T8
directly. And we have videos about that
in my Patreon channel. And uh it's
actually uh gives you a really, really
good sound. If you want to build
something, I have a website at
gapster.ca. And there's a lot of links. TD1
uh links, there's everything you need to
know about how to build them. Tons of
videos, tons of links. Uh so, I would
start in there. I'll put a link of that
in the description below. Videos are
coming up. The clock switcher is finally here.
here.
Works beautifully and actually made me
discover some amazing things I would not
have discovered otherwise. So, there
will be a video coming up on my clock
switcher that lets you actually compare
in real life in a blind test different
clocks to see which ones work best for
your system. My gapster TDA1541A
interface is actually been out for a
little while now. And we've had some
really excellent uh feedback from
different users. Everybody just loves it
and loves how it improves the sound.
Another video coming up, one of the best
output stages I have have actually
tested. This is by WB manufacturer and I
actually make some amazing amplifiers
and tubes are very very knowledgeable in
the tube domain. So there will be a
video just on this output stage. Another
video that is coming up, this is a
passive preamplifier. I always wanted
one of those. This is from AliExpress
and it is extremely promising. There'll
be a very interesting video just on
that. If you are
into DIY, you might want to
[clears throat] join our Patreon where
we talk about things we don't talk about
here. We talk about how you connect the
for example some really good streamers
using their direct I2S signal into for
example the gaps for TD1 DAC and get
some really excellent sound from that.
Still using that user interface that
they have and we also talk about things
that we don't talk about on the YouTube
channel. And you get to see what other
people are building some pre-amazing
stuff all the way from a lot of, you
know, there's no shouting and screaming
and fights that you see on the regular
forums. And that's why I prefer it that
way. It just keeps things low-key and
peaceful. I'll put links about my
Patreon channel in the description
below. It's fairly inexpensive,
$1 or $3 a month. That's all it is. And
there'll be some videos here in the
corners if you like to see one of them
related somewhat to this video. There'll
be a speaker in the middle if you like
to subscribe. That's one good way to
support the channel indirectly without
spending anything. And thank you for
watching and I hope to see you again.
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