FiiO Taishan D03K Digital and Analog Audio Decoder (Coaxial, Optical),Black

Used this to link my Samsung Smart LED TV to my Arcam Solo Mini Hifi system - took 5 minutes, works perfectly, sounds.... incredible. No doubt the quality of the hifi and speakers makes a major contribution, but the DAC is the vital link in the chain, and this one is worth every penny. The Arcam equivalent costs £200.The unit was well packaged and delivered quickly. Fiio have helpfully included little notes about selecting PCM output from your TV, a small point, but maybe one that gets overlooked? Included in the box is small, neat a power supply unit, but if your TV has a spare USB port, you can spend £1 on a "USB to mini USB" cable, plug the USB end into your TV and use the "mini USB" end to power the DAC itself. This is a great feature, because it means (1) that you don't need to take up an electrical plug socket, and (2) the DAC switches itself on and off with the TV - this has to be a good thing.The DAC has a metal body, is supplied with all the ports covered with colour coded plastic caps, and certainly feels like a premium quality component (easily better than the price tag would suggest). There is a red LED to denote power supply, and a blue one to confirm that the optical (TOSLINK) signal is being received correctly from the TV.I'd recommend using a little sticky velcro pad to hold the DAC onto the back of the TV, so the installation can be neat and tidy. If the little velcro pad was included in the box, that would be even better, but that is splitting hairs...This is the second DAC I tried on my system: apparently the Arcam Hifi system is picky about what it will play with, and that is the main reason why I wrote this - other Arcam users may find it useful.The Fiio DAC is great value, worked first time, and the difference in sound over your TV speakers is incredible: buy one and be prepared to fall in love with your movie collection and Hifi all over again...

After reading many forums it seems there have been 3 incarnations of this little DAC. At first it had a Wolfson DAC in it and most agreed it was exceptional for the money. The Wolfson DAC was kept for incarnation number 2, but the design changed and was an abject failure. Many wasted their money. This resulted in a complete change for incarnation 3 which changed the layout and used Cirrus Logic DAC'S and called it the "Taishan". So this DAC is the Fiio D03K Taishan. It has optical and coaxcial in, and left and right RCA out to fit analogue amplifiers. My first reason for buying this was that my TV and Tivo box only have optical outs and no RCA out. So my only choice was to get a DAC with optical in and RCA out to use my HiFi. The DAC would improve the signal from the TV and Tivo anyway. From the Tivo box I was surprised and how good the sound quality was through my system, a Musical Fidelity X-80 amp, Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers, Supra Fly speaker cable and QED interconnects. When listening to BBC Radio, which has higher quality output the sound through the Taishan was exceptional.Having a NAD C542 CD player I though I would set up the Taishan (£29.99) from the CD player using the coaxial out to the Taishan to switch and compare it's Cirrus DAC with the inbuilt Wolfson DAC of the CD player (£250). For subjective listening, as a guide, the general internet experience is that Cirrus DAC's are brighter and more revealing than the Wolfson DAC's, but the Wolfson DAC's are more listenable and musical. I also connected up a Crystal Audio Bluedac into the amplifier to compare aptX bluetooth from my Samsung S3 phone (which has APTX bluetooth output). It is said that aptX Bluetooth streams at CD quality or better.....allegedly. My first surprise was at how good the Taishan is when using in a reasonably good HiFi system. Clear, dynamic, with well defined bass, musical midrange and very clean highs. The NAD CD player with the Wolfson amp was slightly louder as I changed from the Taishan so I had to minutely change the volume up using the Taishan and down when switching to the NAD C542. If I was pressed I would say the Wolfson Nad CD player was slightly more musical, richer and thicker in a good way. But there is very little in it. The Taishan rises to the occasion and has a slightly more airy presentation. When factoring in the price of £29.99, it's a no brainer. This is an amazing bit of kit. It will make your telly or lesser CD player sound so much better. Feed it a good signal, in a good set up, and it rises to do battle. With ordinary TV signals it is a definite improvement. With BBC Radio or HiFi signals it is really excellent. Those Buffs who doubt Cirrus Logic DAC chips should give this a try (some real high end DAC's do use Cirrus chips). Remember it takes a couple of weeks to burn in and incrementally improves.As for the Crystal Audio Bluetooth Bluedac... that I will review soon. Suffice it to say that it is amazing and you can't go wrong if you have aptX output and want to stream your music from a phone. But the subject of this review, the Fiio Taishan D03K is really amazing value and very good indeed.

This is a fantastic little bit of kit, I chose this over the myriad other DACs on Amazon as this was the only one advertised as 192kHz/24bit. The ability to power it via a USB cable directly into the TV is a great feature too.Further specifications included are:Total Harmonic Distortion 0.008%Signal to Noise Ratio 95dBCrosstalk -85dBIf you want a more accurate conversion of a digital signal you are going to have to pay significantly more, e.g. Musical Fidelity's VDACII will give you THD of 0.002% but costs almost six times what you'll pay for this.I used the Fiio DAC to convert the digital output of a new TV to an old Technics amp, powering a pair of B&W 602 speakers and all I can say is 'Wow'! Via my Xbox 360 I played everything from Chopin to euphoric trance, Avatar to Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and it all sounded amazing. It creates an impressive sound stage, with crisp powerful bass and fantastic detail throughout. I cranked up the volume and maxed the bass on the amp to try to stretch the little Fiio to its limits but it just sounded better and better.For a direct comparison I plugged in a pair of Sony MDR-V55 headphones directly to the TV. The flat, compressed, hissing audio was so pitiful it almost feels like you're listening to the sound coming from another room, through a wall... But plugging the headphones into the amp via the DAC provided an immeasurable improvement. It might not be into audiophile territory, but considering the modest price tag it's very, very impressive.One minor negative is the diminutive size of the button used to switch between optical and coaxial inputs all but rules out using the DAC as a switch for two audio sources. It's probably less hassle to just buy another one. Had the button been a bit more accessible and easier to trigger, I'd have hooked my PC up to it too, effectively doubling its value. But regardless of that small issue, this is a great bit of kit at a very reasonable price.