Denon DA-300USB DAC
Not so long ago the Japanese company Denon joined the ranks of manufacturers offering incredibly popular today compact DACs with USB support. The model was named DA-300USB and at an attractive price can boast an incredibly wide range of features. Judge for yourself: in addition to standard PCM (24/192), the converter understands more advanced DSD files with sample rates of 2.8 and 5.6 MHz, which until recently was the prerogative of much more expensive equipment. To integrate it with your computer, all you have to do is install the proprietary ASIO driver. In addition to USB 2.0, the converter is equipped with two optical Toslink jacks and coaxial input, which makes it possible to connect several sources to the unit at once. There is a headphone jack on the front panel. The housing is made of pleasant to the touch plastic, painted to look like aluminum. The front panel is acrylic, with a convenient indication of the current mode of operation. It has a power button, a touch button to select the input, and a level control. Due to the built-in position sensor, the symbols on the display automatically change orientation when the converter is mounted vertically.
The converter has a signature energetic sound with decent macro dynamics and expression. And what is especially valuable, the similar character is retained even when switching to headphones. The DAC thoroughly works through the entire frequency range, enriching the picture with a lot of details. Thanks to the high sound resolution you can clearly hear the difference between normal and HD files, as well as different variants of mastering the same phonogram.
The Denon DA-300USB demonstrates quite agile and energetic bass with the right structure of aftershocks. The only thing that can upset - not the most impressive depth of bass frequencies. The upper range is treated a little bit unusually. At the very edge you can notice a slight defocusing, which reduces the sharpness of the sound of the brass band. The soundstage is very wide and with a good perspective in depth. The images are clearly positioned and stable regardless of the volume.
