Hello All,
I use ROON with my local NAS as well as streaming the TIDAL Masters subscription. I came across the Loxjie D30 DAC/Amp while surfing sites for MQA DACs that don’t break the bank (my bank, anyway). It has all of the decoding options I will ever need, has several good reviews, and seems ridiculously inexpensive. I know it is a China-made device, but it is offered with free 30-day returns. Does anyone in the Community have any info on this DAC? Does ROON recognize it? Are you satisfied with it? Let me know, please
Hi, No personal experience with it, but it’s made by SMSL’s sister company. SMSL is renowned for very high performinng DACs (I still have a Sanskrit 10th v2). Audio Science Review gave the Loxjie D30 a favourable review, although the headphone amp power output wasn’t as high as in other amps - still, Amir still considered the output good enough for general listening, even with high impedance headphones (Sennheiser HD650).
With a free 30-day return, you’ve got nothing to lose and perhaps a great deal to gain. The Chinese have shown in the last few years that you can build exceptional DACs, headphone amplifiers and speaker amplifiers that offer SoTA textbook measured performance at very affordable prices.
Lots of audiophiles look down on them and describe them as sterile, unmusical, unengaging etc. etc. As a bit of an objectivist - to me, a DAC shouldn’t have a signature ‘sound’ that’s all warm and fuzzy - it should take the digital data and transform it into an unadulterated analogue representation of the original that was encoded by the A/D converter in the studio/venue. There are plenty places further along the chain to add your chosen audiophile ‘flavour’.
1 Like