New Year, New Gear

So, as an update to a recent addition of my set up, which is not going on the set up page as it is temporary, is the Bel Canto DAC 2.5. My dad is actually selling this in place of another 2.5 which he for some reason got for a good deal, which for some reason also sounds better, so for this reason he is selling this. Because it was going to be sitting around anyway, I decided to seize that chance and take this to my room to use it as a DAC for my laptop! Well he let me use it before I have to give it back to ship it to a new owner, so it should be temporary for the time being. As for how I’m hooking this extremely expensive and really good DAC, I’m using USB from my laptop.

Unlike analogue or other forms of input to the DAC which surprisingly also has a dedicated headphone amp,  USB is only 96kHz, so it isn’t like analogue at 192kHz so the quality might not be there, but it certainly actually sounds better in my opinion. The Bass is tighter and deeper, the highs are better, Cymbals on track are realistic and brassy, which is very ideal. Vocal reproduction is very realistic with not much edginess which can be more apparent without it, and more chaotic noise reproduction such as those of a rock band is actually very collected and more too chaotic. This is to be expected though as this DAC actually came in new with an MSRP of $1995. Much more expensive than any other audio equipment not my laptop alone. That says something because the price should be justified on well known products such as this DAC(/preamplifier)

That was just a small update on my temporary set up, and how it’s going to roll for awhile. If I get anything else to try my hands and review, you’ll definitely see it in the projects column so be sure to check that out!