Does A Budget DAC (Stoner Acoustics UD100) Make Life More Fun?

I think many users are using a pc or laptop to watch movie or listen to music. But most of time, many users just tend to upgrade their speaker or headset without given much thought of the DAC (digital to analog converter) because DAC seem to be a luxurious upgrade. However, there is a new budget level DAC being introduced by a local at lowyat forum. The DAC is being known as Stoner Acoustics UD100 and selling at RM140 only. It is having very good reviews and feedbacks in lowyat and among audiophiles.

In this post, I will test whether a budget DAC make the life of casual user more fun. I will test the UD100 with 3 different speakers which are Edifier M1350 (RM89), Edifier C3 (RM400) and Audioengine A5+ (RM1500) against built-in soundcard. I will have my dad and my sis as the audience while I change between the DAC and built-in soundcard without letting them know which setup i am using.

Look
The UD100 is just as small as a pendrive. It is just plug and play in Windows 7.

Watching Movie
I played few different quality of RMVB and MKV movies. And each time they choose the setup of the UD100 over the built-in soundcard in all 3 of speakers setup. Is the different significant? Yes they said. So, what is the significant improvement of the UD100 make to the movie? The sound effect of the movie. The noises of the crow made in the movie is more lively, more realistic like happening in front of you. The walking sound in the wooden house also become more solid.

So, the UD100 do make significant improvement over the built-in sound card. It make the dynamic expression of the sound effect to be more lively and realistic.

Listening to Musics
This time few different quality of music file ranging from flv, mp3 to loseless wav is being played. And the result is the same as last time. UD100 is choosen each time. So, what is the significant improvement? They said that the bass become more solid, the treble also improve a lot while the vocal of the singer become more sweet and lively.

However, from my opinion, the significant improvement is the staging or placement of the song. Without the DAC, the vocal and the instrument all seem to be coming from the same place. After using the DAC, the vocal seem to be place forward while the instrument such as drummer, guitarist is being place at their own place behind the singer. It just seem to be a stage being set in front of me.

*When i swap in the HRT music streamer 2 (RM649) for the Audioengine A5+, the dynamic expression, staging and vocals sound even more better than the UD100.

Upgrade Speaker? Upgrade DAC?
The improvement of upgrading a speaker is totally different from upgrading a DAC. When upgrading speaker, the more expensive speaker improve the sound of high, mid and low. Such improvement always leave very strong first impression. While upgrading DAC, they improve the dynamic expression and staging to be more accurate and realistic. Such improvement may not leave such strong impression as upgrading speaker. But, its very essential in my opinion. It just breath live into your movie or music.

So what is the amount of money you should spend on DAC vs Speaker/Headset. This is a very subjective question and it varies among people. When i ask my dad will he buy the UD100 (RM140) for the Edifier M1350 (RM89), he said yes. But from my opinion, i think the DAC should be 20% to 50% of your headset/speaker price. So if your speaker or headset cost around RM250 to RM700 and you don't own a DAC, then the UD100 is a worth while first DAC to get.

Update
After setting up my Edifier C3 with UD100, kernel streaming and speaker isolation, I am quite satisfied with the improvement given the low budget upgrade. Hence, I plan to post some audio recordings to show the improvement between onboard audio, UD100 and UD100 with kernel streaming. It is recorded using my handphone. The song is played at 60% volume with bass -3.

Onboard Audio:

UD100:

UD100 with Kernel Streaming:

These recordings just serve as references and may not fully represent live listening condition.

Conclusion
Does a budget DAC (UD100) make life more fun? The answer is yes.

What is the significant improvement? It just breath life into your digital file. It significantly improve the dynamic expression of sound effect in a movie. It also improve the control of bass and treble; dynamic expression of vocal; and staging effect in music.

How much should i spend on DAC? My opinion is 20% to 50% of your speaker/headset.
So, if your speaker or headset cost around RM250 to RM700 and you don't own a DAC, then the Stoner Acoustics UD100 is a worth while first DAC to get. You can get more information on the following links:

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2449848
https://www.facebook.com/StonerAcoustics