You don't get half a dozen ports, nor do you get dedicated volume controls. There's a small built-in headphone amp as well.Īs far as bells and whistles go, it has none. This means that it plugs straight into a USB port and outputs the digital audio via a headphone jack. The DragonFly Red (not to be confused with the cheaper DragonFly Black – which is also good but not as much) is a portable USB DAC. It's for no reason that What Hi-Fi calls it “near-flawless”. It's absolutely tiny, doesn't cost the earth, and packs a massive punch. The AudioQuest DragonFly Red is the best budget DAC on the market.Īudiophiles swear by the DragonFly Red. Let's take a more detailed look at all these DACs below: Best Budget DAC: AudioQuest DragonFly RedĪfter using dozens of the best USB DACs, I have zero qualms making this claim: I’ll start this guide by answering the question you all came here for: what’s the best budget DAC I can buy right now?Īt a glance, these are my top selections: In the next few sections, I'll do a deep dive on each of these DACs and cover what makes them worth your money. Mapping this list on a price-performance graph, we get the following: Affordable gear that doesn't sound good isn't worth any amount of money.īased on these two factors, here are our the six best budget DACs right now: Product
Performance, of course, is a top criteria. But since we don't live in that perfect world, your choice – and ours – depends heavily on price. If you had an infinite budget to work with, you could buy any bespoke gear (and audiophile gear can be extraordinarily expensive). Price is the limiting factor in most purchase decisions. While there are a number of elements that go into making a competent DAC, we essentially think it all boils down to two elements: value for money (i.e.
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