My Schiit Modi is a piece of shit. I’m so sick of its high treble killing my music. I tried the Grace SDAC but i just discovered its also colored. Since im getting the THX 888 amp i want a good DAC with it. Whats the cheapest option for a clean, transparent, uncolored DAC? Doesnt need to be balanced.
I noticed the SU8 is on sale. is that clean, transparent, uncolored?
Yeah, the su-8 v2 is great, also has a lot of features. I would just go for that and call it a day. Great value
but is it uncolored?
For the most part. You won’t really get an uncolored dac for this price, but it’s more uncolored then others for the price.
It also has some filters to color it or adjust the sound, but you do not have to enable it
I thought all DACs were uncolored except maybe R2Rs or AVRs (or some pricey audiophile stuff).
Anyway…
Color does not always mean frequency response. There can be coloration because of harmonics, transients, and also the dac was implemented and the output stage. Some measurements cannot reveal this. But for the most part yeah most dacs shouldn’t have much color lol
Also the topping d50s is pretty nice as well
Also a dac that is very very uncolored (from what I hear) is hard to come by (and expensive lol)
I see this is a DAC/Amp. Is there just a DAC version of this?
It’s the topping d50s (well that’s the new one) but the original d50 is just a dac as well
Topping D50 is a DAC, the new D50S is a dac with bluetooth (and without the ESS hump).
a slight rise in intermodulation distortion (IMD) that sometimes occurs when ESS DACs are played at mid levels. -Massdrop
And not the cheap Bluetooth: LDAC/AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX-LL/aptX-HD
I mean, man, that’s an audiophile level of neutrality right there. 
Well yeah lol. I mean I’m not really that anal about it, I’m just assuming antpage is lol
Also the principal of there’s always a bigger fish too
wanting specifics and including the word ‘cheap’ in the request is a process of futility and frustration! LoL!
Well idk. I dont think im that picky but sometimes i do surprise myself. And i dont think that its futile to want a good cheap option for a uncolored DAC. I should be able to find that. Theres a lot of good companies out there selling nice cheap DACs.
Yeah, but to meet the uncolored claim that will be a hard task imo. The clean and transparent are simple, but the uncolored is more difficult
i thought they where all the same thing
I would interpret clean as low distortion and a good strong clean signal, transparent as revealing detail accurately, and uncolored as not emphasizing a frequency range and providing a true to life tone and timbre.
ok well let me change this post to just “uncolored” DAC
Ah yes the hardest to achieve imo lol.
Imma be honest, I think you would want to step up to the rme adi2 dac or something similar for a dac that I would pretty much say is fairly uncolored
I’m eyeing the D50… Have you heard the Topping D50/D50S?
What would be the “color” of this one?
Pink? 
(sorry)
It’s a pretty clean and transparent dac, really nothing to worry about imo. If I had to say for the d50s (have not heard the regular d50) it might be a bit on the thinner side imo, and also have a bit of strangeness with the mids but really nothing to worry about. Thats really nitpicking at that point and it’s not something you will notice with most headphones/speakers/iems anyway
