As I said in my previous post I am a big fan of combined USB DAC and headphone amplifiers. However it wasn't long ago that I didn't even know these things existed. The ability to output audio from a computer via USB and have the sound quality to headphones significantly boosted is just brilliant.
Unfortunately finding the right one can be a real nightmare. High street stores are as likely to stock them as x-ray glasses and if you find one online how do you know if it sounds any good? Ultimately your choice will come down to reading as much about them, in as many reviews as you can find, but before that you have to know which ones exist. If you are fairly new to this niche market and just want to know what is out there - fear not, I'm here to help. I collected a ton of information while searching the depths of the internet and arranged it into this simple graph.
It's a pretty good start, but I'm sure it's not complete, so if you notice anything wrong or missing I would really appreciate a comment to let me know where I can make this resource even better.
I have split it up in to two graphs so they can more easily fit to screen when enlarged, they are arranged by price and the first is for devices anything £250 (about $390 USD but US prices will be different). The Second graph is for everything from £250 and above. To better see this data please click on the images to open the larger versions in a separate window.
NOTE: For the 'portable' category 'semi' means that it's fairly light (<500g) but requires mains power. So it's easily transportable, but not completely portable.
On the 'Output' section the 'USB' column means that it can turn an analogue signal back into digital for recording on a computer (ADC as well as DAC). It's pretty rare but there are a couple devices that have this feature.
Unfortunately finding the right one can be a real nightmare. High street stores are as likely to stock them as x-ray glasses and if you find one online how do you know if it sounds any good? Ultimately your choice will come down to reading as much about them, in as many reviews as you can find, but before that you have to know which ones exist. If you are fairly new to this niche market and just want to know what is out there - fear not, I'm here to help. I collected a ton of information while searching the depths of the internet and arranged it into this simple graph.
It's a pretty good start, but I'm sure it's not complete, so if you notice anything wrong or missing I would really appreciate a comment to let me know where I can make this resource even better.
I have split it up in to two graphs so they can more easily fit to screen when enlarged, they are arranged by price and the first is for devices anything £250 (about $390 USD but US prices will be different). The Second graph is for everything from £250 and above. To better see this data please click on the images to open the larger versions in a separate window.
£0-250 ($0-390 USD)
£250+ ($390+ USD) 
NOTE: For the 'portable' category 'semi' means that it's fairly light (<500g) but requires mains power. So it's easily transportable, but not completely portable.
On the 'Output' section the 'USB' column means that it can turn an analogue signal back into digital for recording on a computer (ADC as well as DAC). It's pretty rare but there are a couple devices that have this feature.
