Around $100 or less dacs

If it does catch fire, take pictures!! :grinning::grinning:

Fantastic grid. You can take the question mark off of the China for the tone board. Decidedly a Chinese outfit.

are their any expected audible differences between dacs at such a close price point? or is just numbers and build quality?

Iā€™m sure you could find a $100 dac with audibly poor sound quality.

I guess the point of attention to measurements is, when choosing between devices of the same cost and availability, there is nothing to be gained and much to be lost by ignoring measurements. At best, there is an inaudible difference. At worst, you are robbing yourself of sound quality when a different choice for the same price would have sounded better.

SMSL is also made in China brand. I mean, Shenzen is part of their company nameā€¦

For most of the gear you would reasonably pair with a $100 DAC I think its just you believing in numbers actually making a difference. As your amp and headphones get better the differences will be more noticeable.

Great topic!
All of those ones listed here are probably just fine, so take into account things like appearance, inputs, QC, service after the sale, etc, as well as sound quality.
Personally I decided on a schiit modi 3. Iā€™ve been happy with other products from the company before, love the look, and it matches the SYS I use too.
Iā€™m weary about topping; QC doesnā€™t seem to be the greatest.

Schiits customer service is top notch also which is a huge bonus

Thatā€™s wired I havenā€™t heard anything about toppingā€™s QC issues. At least my unit works fine so I never really looked into it. I maint like topping because all their stuff is easy and quick to buy in Canada

iā€™m using TEAC UD-301 as my DAC, i myself for one dont believe in dac significantly changing the sound, instead believe it as an output format supporter, as long good ol FLAC is there, ā€œsomeā€ DSD, and a good amount of digital input options, i am good to go regardless what DAC chips and what not

DX3 pro issues, reviews on amazon, even some user feedback on asr. Not a ton of issues, but more than Iā€™d like to see.

Ah I see itā€™s possible its a product to product basis.

If someone can get me accurate measurements of height, width, the inset depth of that inner rim on the top and the curve of the corners. Then I can throw a 3d model together of just the empty box and one with the appropriate holes for the Khadas.
Someone that has an Atom will have to print it and check since I do not have an Atom to do that with.
@FBizzle @Andrew_Davis etc who have an Atom. I leave those measurements to you.
A caliper measurement would be good if possible. But I guess a finely graduated ruler works too.

Edit: my Thingiverse which is a bit sparse at the moment. I have been too busy to put stuff on it.

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Thatā€™s a fantastic offer. Iā€™m afraid to say that the best I could do is measurements using one my daughtersā€™ bright pink plastic arts and crafts rulers.

JDS Labs lists it as 5.0in x 5.5in x 1.4in. I can verify this with my pink plastic ruler. If you could coach me on measuring angles Iā€™d give that a go, also. :laughing: Donā€™t know if that is helpful.

yeah that measurement isnā€™t accurate enough.
In metric I would need to get at least down to 1mm. Accurate to 200 micrometers would be nice though.
So about 0.04-0.05 of an inch or so on the high side.

If the measurements arenā€™t at least that accurate there will be some size difference and I would have to continually have to alter it until it was right.

If that ruler can do 1/32 inch then it will probably be fine. 1/16th of an inch is getting a bit rough. But doable.

If you have a flat bed scanner you could scan the top of the Atom. If it is scanned as a set page size that is commonly known I can probably do the top side measurements.

Measuring curved corners is pretty straight forward. Usually you would figure out where the the curve starts. Measure from there until the center point of the curve. To do that the easiest way is with two straight objects like two rulers from either side. where the two meet is the center point.
That works best if the curve is a fillet aka a rounded corner.

This is essentially how you measure that.
Fillet

If the curve is not a fillet, then it becomes a pain in the ass because you need to do a lot of measuring as various points along the curve to extrapolate the non circular curve.

I bought a aluminium case for my Khadas Tone Board from here:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/aluminium-boxes-cases/aluminum-case-for-khadas-tone-board-p-13626.html

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I was planning on getting this but shipped to home was over $43. Just not worth it to me, but I can see why others would choose it.

Donā€™t know if this is useful. Itā€™s set to 8.5 x 11 in. Click on it to get it to go to original size. I can send you the file if youā€™d like too.

Also the ruler is blue, not pink. So that may affect your measurements.

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that should be fine. Thank god it has centimeters and millimeters on it.

Lol. I think blue is fine

Got some other work to do this weekend. So Iā€™ll post something in a few days and someone can give it a try.

And remember, only you can stop forest fires.

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@FBizzle

Frank, werenā€™t you also working on some sort of enclosure for the Tone Board? More the merrier, for sure!