I would agree, the used market price is the real price, in the end the 281 and mini tend to go for similar prices on the used markets but if you had to buy new the mini is a better value there imo, if you want vio I suggest you wait for a sale or buy used (but ideally buy used for both lol)
Stepped attenuators for life lol
I have the DACT and I have to say while it is nice, the mini has so much power it automatically disqualifies it from IEM use. The steps are too far apart for proper control, on power hungry headphones it’s fine but more sensitive, ALPS is the way to go I think.
The one thing I can’t wait to use on the mini is the pre-outs look like they’ll be perfect swapping to powered monitors on a computer setup. Balanced and single ended pre-outs that at a flick of a switch are working is a nice feature I wish I was using now.
This is exactly as awesome as you think it is. Using the switch makes it a very satisfying part of my setup
Im giving the v280 a shot with the modius today. So far it seems like the maybe cleaner output of the DS DAC works better with the v280.
I think generally the more neutral slightly analytical dacs tend to preform better with the vio stuff (hence one of the aspects of the soekris + Vio combo)