#AUDIONOTE DAC 3.1 KIT REVIEW INSTALL#
#AUDIONOTE DAC 3.1 KIT REVIEW PLUS#

The ZEN Air DAC has the technical ability to satisfy that need and project distance with accurate positioning and panning, or imaging.įor now, I’m just going to use the original Zen DAC which has the closest number in cost plus it’s also similarly styled. However, the one important area that most gamers require that their sound gear performs well is in terms of positioning. The ZEN Air DAC is completely plug-and-play and has less output power but the sound quality is more Audiophile oriented and I prefer it for music listening because it seems more natural and not so excited.

#AUDIONOTE DAC 3.1 KIT REVIEW INSTALL#

Plus you put more stress on your PC in three ways because this card depends on one PCIe port plus a SATA power connector from the power supply directly and you also have to download and install drivers. If I had to choose which one I would prefer gaming in particular on, I would probably choose the NU because it seems to pack more punch, certainly comes with more features but also a fair bit more expensive It features audio-grade capacitors, swappable OP-amps, native DSD, PCM of up to 384K, 32bit from a Cirrus Logic CS5346 DAC plus it also has an XMOS XCORE 200 for DSP purposes. This particular card is one of the best out there and is equipped with Nahimic, engineered by Audio Note. My particular card within my custom build presently is the EVGA NU which retails for $299.00. One of the marketing claims of the ZEN Air DAC is that it could fare well with gamers and PC users who want better sound quality from their PCs but don’t want to go the soundcard route. Noise levels seem to be absent with sensitive IEMs such as the FiiO FH9.Īctually, I would say the ZEN Air DAC marries well with bright signature IEMs since its overall sonic characters are warm with an absence of treble stridence but also balanced in response and is also able to kick the bass up a notch with the XBass +. On the IEM side, I did not hear any major hiss or artifacts. I also powered a T50 MK3 variant headphone but it was not an optimal combo since they need lots of raw power but it did produce a medium volume level which was adequate enough for a casual listen. I did get to run the Sundara and the Arya plus some other cans of up to 300Ω with no issues. Just don’t expect to get maximum performance, especially in the bass region if you use power-hungry cans. You could easily power low impedance dynamic cans but also some that are more demanding. If you get a ZEN Air DAC make sure you have efficient headphones.

Audionote dac 3.1 kit review