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thanks. I bought a cheap DAC (SMSL M100 mkii) to trial and - to my ears - the audio seems noticeably better (source: chromecast 3)
now... just need to figure how loud I can rip it before the neighbours start grousing
cozzzzzzzz-
Chromecast 3 outputs HDMI, that DAC doesn't have HDMI input.. what else is in the equation?
I'm always looking for a replacement to the Chromecast Audio, not because mine has issues but because it will eventually suffer bitrot from no longer being supported.
There's this: https://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/hdacc-ii-4k/ but it seems a bit excessive.
And this: https://www.kanexpro.com/item/?id=HAECOAX but who knows whether this is good or not.
And this: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=590187330024 which looks great, but would prefer spdif. But apparently this is the only way to get a coax output from a SACD.
Velocio
IME a £100 dac sounds a little bit, noticeably, better than the inbuilt dac in the source device. It doesn’t matter much which £100 dac you pick. A £200 dac is unlikely to sound noticeably different to a £100 dac but it might have features you’ll find useful. A £500 dac will be better than a £100 dac by less than the increment from built in dac to £100 dac, and that won’t have been massive in the first place.