Oh there's also the new
Caiman (Click the Caiman link from left-hand bottom) from Beresford. Its been discussed a lot these days in similar forums.
Excerpts from the site:
What you get for your money
1. WM8716 - 64x, 192KHz oversampling DAC chip. The majority of high-end consumer DAC chips are only 8x oversampling types. The Caiman DAC chip is only matched or surpassed by the DSP based DAC chips. As far as we know, the Caiman is the first and only DAC that makes sole use of the latest 64x oversampling technology in an affordable consumer aimed product.
2. Digital Filter Circuit. There has been much debate as to how much damage is done to the audio signal by the various analogue filtering networks that are found in a DAC. The new 64x oversampling technology used in the Beresford Caiman relies instead on a digital filter. This makes the Caiman the less prone to anti alaiasing filter residues and noise.
3. LM4562NA - Recording Studio specification audio operational amplifiers. The 64x oversampling technology requires a far higher slew rate from the audio chips in the signal path if the extra speed, detail, and accuracy of the decoded signal is to be maintained at the RCA/PHONO and headphone socket output of the Caiman. THD + N figures are a mere 0.00003%.
4. Class-A headphone amplifier circuit. The new generations of high-end headphones have up to now only been able to operate properly on expensive stand-alone headphone amplifiers. The Caiman inbuilt headphone amplifier is designed to drive even the latest range of high-end headphones and reproduce musical detail that these new headphones are capable of.
5. PCM2902 - Latest generation USB input with professional performance levels that finally brings USB audio into mainstream HIFI audio applications. Several times better performance compared to the level entry PCM2702 that is commony found in a large number of USB capable Digital to Analogue Converters.
Will cost approximately 200 GBP
Cheers.
