Shopping for a good D/A?

[JakeKalka]

I was looking at getting the Apogee Rosetta 200 for a D/A converter. All this is hooking up to for now is my monitors. Would this be the best buy or should I be doing more research?

[foldback]

Get ready for a complete list of everybody's personal favorite.

I don't own the Rosetta currently but I have owned it and liked it. I've also owned Apogee X Series converters, a Duet and currently an Ensemble.

I've had excellent support from Apogee, what more could you want from a vendor. They've always answered my emails fast and their products have been reliable for me.

You may only be planning to use it for D-A now but later you may be glad it can do A-D as well.

I've bought Apogee off Fleabay and never had a problem (I ask the right questions before buying). I know some folks who have purchased Apogee from Fleabay that was not quite as advertised. In this case it's good to have the support previously mentioned.

The Rosetta 200 is a commodity product IMHO and it has good resale value.

I bought my first Rosetta because it was such an amazing deal, I found an auction that was ending on a Tuesday morning for under $1100, I talked to the seller and the price was too good to pass up, a few months later I sold it for over $1300.

Personal feelings about this unit will be all over the place. I like it. Others will say it's dark or colored or not good enough for some reason.

If you buy a preowned unit for a good price you'll never lose money on it and it will reward you with good solid industry standard conversion. If you buy a used one for a good price and don't like it you can easily sell it later.

Good luck with your shopping and recording.

[SoZo]

Iv'e used a MiniDAC for years.... I really liked it when i compared it to other converters.

[Teddy Ray]

I prefer Mytek to them, ******//www.mytekdigital.com/products/stereo96adc.htm

and I also really like the Cambridge Audio DacMagic.

Amazon.com: Cambridge Audio DacMagic Digital-to-Analog Converter with USB, Silver: Electronics

[AntillesSound]

I really like the miniDAC but have recently fallen in love with the Benchmark DAC 1. SUCH a solid D/A.

[Adebar]

Originally Posted by JakeKalka

I was looking at getting the Apogee Rosetta 200 for a D/A converter. All this is hooking up to for now is my monitors. Would this be the best buy or should I be doing more research?

The MiniDAC for itself is quite good. It becomes really good with a better external PSU clocked via BigBen or the Grimm Clock. In fact I was almost blown away with this combination (very good PSU + better Clock).

If you take the money into account for the Master Clock and the PSU you go better the next step to a converter which performs well without additional helpers.

If you already have a Big Ben or a Grimm or dCS Clock I would just add a better power supply and you will be happy with the MiniDAC. But, is it available any more?

[nas]

+1 for Mytek.

I'm using the Mytek Stereo96 DAC and it's excellent. Amazing clarity and detail and with a very stable internal clock... also very reasonably priced as far as high quality conversion goes.

[jeronimo]

Originally Posted by Adebar

The MiniDAC for itself is quite good. It becomes really good with a better external PSU clocked via BigBen or the Grimm Clock. In fact I was almost blown away with this combination (very good PSU + better Clock).

If you take the money into account for the Master Clock and the PSU you go better the next step to a converter which performs well without additional helpers.

If you already have a Big Ben or a Grimm or dCS Clock I would just add a better power supply and you will be happy with the MiniDAC. But, is it available any more?

Could you point any links for those better power supplies please?

Thank you!