Project Audio DAC Box USB

I have now owned this new-to-the-market DAC for a couple of weeks and I am extremely impressed with it, even notwithstanding the very modest asking price.

Just to put people in the picture who may not be across this new USB DAC, it is the most recent DAC to be manufactured by Project. Their previous DACs (still available I believe) include a USB DAC which is powered by the USB port itself, as well as a filterless, non-oversampling DAC (which lacks a USB input). The latter DAC is still their most expensive (by roughly $50), whereas the DAC Box USB I have purchased cost me a mere $299 Australian (and can be bought at a roughly equivalent price in Europe).

I have to say that I think Project need to differentiate amongst their various digital to analogue conversion-based products a little better. They all come in the same looking boxes, they all have the same sort of casing (with obviously appropriate changes to the front panels) and they even are slightly confusing as to what the differences are until you read the individual specs of each.

Just to prove how confusing it is, the Australian distributer actually sent the wrong product to the shop from which I purchased the DAC Box USB (they sent the filterless version instead), and the shop itself also failed to determine that the product sent to them was the wrong one! This mistake was, however, quickly rectified via overnight courier.

If you have ever owned any of Project's "desktop box" products before, you will be familiar with the rather spartan but functional packaging - it's all pretty minimalist but this helps keep prices down since the products take up a minimum amount of space (and weigh as little as possible packaged). Inside the retail package, there is nothing more than the unit itself, a USB cable and an instruction manual. The packages - as is always the case with these Project products - are too small to include the power supplies, and these are always supplied separately in non-descript white boxes.

The DAC Box USB is rather unique though, in that it is - to my knowledge - the first of Project's "box design" products to utilise a 9 volt DC power supply. All the others use a 16 volt AC power supply. The power supply included with the DAC Box USB is a miniscule switching supply that is only specified for 330 milliamps. That means that current delivery may be marginal, since this is the unit's stated power consumption figure.

As some background to this post, I have been looking for a good-sounding USB DAC for a long time. I have previously owned both the Musical Fidelity V-DAC, Cambridge Audio DACMagic and have also tried the Devilsound 2.1 USB DAC-cable. I found the Musical Fidelity V-DAC to have a very coloured, turgid, bleached, fatiguing and "in your face" sort of sound, whereas the DACMAgic tended to be very clear but also fatiguing and sibilant in the midrange and high frequencies. The Devilsound, however, fared even worse than the other two, with a missing top end, a grainy, steely sound and even more colouration than the other two. None of these DACs could handle the sound of a bowed violin properly, and to my way of figuring, if you can't get that right then the DAC is inaccurate and lacking in transparency.

At this point I was starting to get desperate, since I could not just keep on buying DACs to try - and it is very hard - if not impossible - to audition reasonably priced DACs here in Australia - dealers who will lend you products are very few and (literally) very far between.

I bought the Project DAC Box USB as a last (desperate) measure. I had already decided that if I did not like this DAC, it would be the last one I would try - I would then simply build a PC from scratch dedicated as a music server, with an ASUS Xonar ST card handling the DAC duties. You can imagine my relief then that as soon as I heard the DAC Box USB, I knew this was the DAC for me. Thank goodness for that - the ASUS netbook and this DAC are far more discreet, better looking and cheaper than a solid state drive PC-based music server.

Onto the specifics of the DAC itself: It is distinguished from the other Project DACs by possessing three closely-spaced blue LEDs on the front panel. These LEDs (numbered 1, 2 and 3) differentiate the input source selected (coax, USB or optical). Whilst the coax and optical will handle up to 24/48, the USB section is restricted to 16/48 - as is the case with the Rega DAC. The DAC Box USB will, however upsample the 16/48 (and the 24/48 from the coax and optical inputs) to 24/96. Given that I have always despised upsampling DACs, I was amazed this DAC sounds as good as it does. I have now partially changed my mind about upsampling. Whilst every upsampling DAC I have ever heard I have hated (apart from the Cambridge Audio 840C CD player and the dCS range), this humble Project DAC just goes to show that it is possible to achieve good sounding upsampling at a budget price. The fact that does not upsample to 24/192 was actually a selling point for me - I say this because in my experience, most DACs that are speced for 24/192 don't actually handle it very well unless you get into the top end stuff with very high quality power supplies and low-jitter clocking capabilities. Most of the budget priced products, however, work better at 24/96 because the demands on the hardware are considerably lower than is the case at 24/192.

Back to those three LED lights on the front panel, and I don't understand why Project did not space them further apart and place input descriptions underneath them rather than only numbers. OK, I know it is only three inputs, but it is going to annoy and confuse new users, especially (as was the case with me) there are initial teething troubles in getting the DAC to work.

And those teething troubles were a right pain - for some reason when I first connected it to my ASUS netbook, I got no sound at all no matter what I tried - I tried different media players, tried the downloads from the Project website - but after an hour trying I almost gave up and was about to return the DAC to the shop as faulty. Then I drove over to Mum's house to borrow her Dell netbook. This is an older model that still runs Windows XP, as opposed to the 32 bit Windows 7 "Starter" used in the ASUS netbooks. No luck with the XP-powered Dell either. Then I tried the Core i7-based Windows 7 64 bit monster PC that I use for gaming and simming. And this time the DAC worked perfectly right off the bat. I then resorted to reformatting the ASUS netbook and then suddenly the DAC Box USB worked perfectly on that machine as well, except that it refused to work with Project's ASIO driver (infact, Project's ASIO driver would not work on any of my PCs and netbooks). Why the DAC started to work fine when I reformatted was a mystery - I am no newcomer to PCs and I really did cover everything that I could think of. My guess it it might be some obscure bug in Windows 7 or perhaps even the hardware that causes "confusion" if previous USB DACs have been connected (even though the Windows sound applet showed they had been properly disconnected and the "new" DAC had been correctly configured as was the default speaker device).

As for the ASIO problem, that will probably remain an unsolved mystery. As I mentioned, ASIO did not work on any of the four completely different computers that I tried - and Project's customer support in my opinion is extremely poor (if you email a technical query to them - or any sort of query at all - they will simply forward the query to your Country's distributer. And in my particular case, the local distributer has never answered any product queries passed onto them by Project head office in Europe. So for all practical purposes, unless there is a clear hardware fault with a Project product, knowledgable technical support may be very hard to obtain (I have to say though that all other aspects such as the sourcing of spare parts, servicing and getting items into stock to begin with is very good). I think Project however, need to improve their customer service by vetting initial technical enquires more closely. I can't help feeling that if I could not get the ASIO driver to work, then a number of other owners will have exactly the same problem. Perhaps they may give up and just use DirectSound along with Windows Media Player - but in such cases they are denying themselves the full capability of the DAC Box USB's potential.

Whatever the case, it took me about 4 hours to get the DAC to work and even then I had problems. I was using it with Foobar and the wasapi driver. But it did not seem to like this - the audio would have gaps in it every so often and no changes to anything such as buffers and memory allocation made any difference. I then tried the J River Media Centre 15 software and from then on it was plain sailing. This configuration is what I have been using for two weeks and the performance in every respect has been completely flawless (I am running wasapi in exclusive mode).

As to the sound, I would say that it is on the slightly warm and forgiving side of neutral (this is actually how I would characterise the sound of all Project products that I have heard). The unit possesses an excellent top end and I think this particular characteristic is one of it's strongest points (and certainly one of the weakest in terms of budget DACs in general). The top end of the DAC Box USB is very smooth, grain-free and extended. This surprises me somewhat given my hitherto aversion to upsampling DACS (which in all cases but two have added grain and hardness to the top end). HiFi News and Record Review also thought the treble was very good but called it a bit dry. I do not notice this, but this might have something to do with my particular unit having been in constant use for a couple of weeks and the fact that I am using a better quality switching power supply with higher current capabilities. Or maybe I am not just hearing what they are hearing. HiFi News also thought the mid-basss was a bit "plumby" bit again, I did not notice this after about a week of use (but I did notice it when it was new and using the stock power supply).

But perhaps what I like best about this little DAC is that it is totally fatigue free. I could listen to music all day - even at a modest 16/48 - and never feel like I have to stop listening because my ears have had enough. The music just seems to flow very easily out of this DAC, without the constipated auditory feeling the V-DAC gave me. And whilst music flowed easily out the DACMAgic too, it has a much coarser and in-your-face sound and a much more fatiguing midrange. The DAC Box USB is very relaxing by comparison - rather than shove the sound in your face it instead invites you in with a more distant, deeper and realistic soundstage and a warm sound that eschews midrange brightness without sacrificing clarity.

If you can get your hands on the Hifi News review, you will see that they were very enthusiastic about this new piece of kit - and infact it was this review that gave me the courage to take a punt on the device. And although it did come in for some minor criticism, the shortcomings they did mention seemed to become much less of a problem to me as the unit burned in and a better power supply was substituted. Even notwithstanding the criticism though, the unit scored 81% in sound quality, versus the 86% scored by the dCS Debussy in the later December 2010 issue. Sure, I would be happy to stretch to the Debussy, but only if I could spare the money...

Some will probably find the fact that the DAC Box USB will only accept 16 bit input for the USB - and then only up to 48 khz to be a major drawback (if the critcism of the Rega DAC is anything to go by). Many more will be frustrated that the DAC can only handle up to 24/48 via the coax and optical inputs. Sure I would like it to handle higher resolutions as well (not that I need them myself), but that said, it still sounds better than any other DAC I have tried that does handle higher resolutions. My experience is that low and mid resolutions done well sound much better than higher resolutions done badly. At present, since I have the benefit of having an iZotope and MBIT+ licence, I can produce great-sounding mid-resolution files from high resolution sources and still get better sound than running the original files through higher resolution DACs. And in the end, one has to consider the bargain price of this DAC - it really is one of the cheapest DACs on the market, yet to me it is one of the best sounding (and certainly one of the best built too).

Whilst I can't see many fans of hard rock or heavy metal, etc liking this DAC (because it will just seem to be too polite), I can nevertheless see it winning many fans of classical music who may otherwise find the sound of many digital devices these days to be overly-processed, overly-coloured and fatiguing. That said, although I listened to mainly classical music (both from CD rips and from high resolution material downsampled and dithered to 16/48 using iZoptope and MBIT+), it also fared well with some of the more conservative popular genres I enjoy ("golden age" artists such Nat King Cole and progressive rock artists of relatively recent times such as Alan Parsons, Mike Oldfield, etc).

Certainly if you are a fan of Project Audio gear and like the "house sound", this DAC would have to go on your audition list if you want to hear great quality audio from your netbook PC at a modest price. You might want to factor in the $50 US cost of the J Media software though - since otherwise the DAC only seemed to work reliably with the "default" Direct Sound drivers - yet it sounds so much better with the wasapi driver in exclusive mode.

http://box-designs.com/main.php?prod=dacboxusb&cat=digital&lang=en

 

Hi JohnP,

Thank you for your well considered and detailed product review.

I am also from the Est coast of Australia and I have also purchased one of these remarkable little DAC's and the Distributor had the similar problems with my one as well.

However I bought it for different reasons. I own an Olive 4 Music server and I wanted to try out 24/96 flac files which the Olive doesn't support on its analogue outputs.

I also agree with the confusion of the "Black Box" series of products (mine is Silver) as the unit came delivered with the 16 volt power supply not a 9 volt one. No matter, I also substituted another power supply, albiet one with a higher amperage output and I havent bothered even connecting the minuscule 'proper" power supply when it eventually arrived 2 weeks later.

I listen to mostly popular music with a smattering of classical and think it sounds very, very good indeed with everything i throw at it. In comparison to the internal DAC of the Olive (after a couple of months) it is very open and has a somewhat "larger" apparent soundstage and general sound. I am only using the coax input at this stage, but I am going to connect a spare CD player to the Toslink input when I get around to it.

All in all I am very happy with this budget purchase and have no regrets as I also couldn't hear it before I bought it.

Unfortunately the ability to play hires files on it is largely untested as I have only been able to download one file successfully and it just didn't sound that good. I course have the same problem with HD Tracks that everyone outside the US has in that they wont sell to me. Anyway i am glad I bought it anyway on sound quality alone.

 

Hi Linolad,

Thanks for the feedback with popular music. I wasn't too sure what people would think of it in this genre as at the very least I am not an experienced listener in this regard.

I also need to correct a point I mentioned (and which you mentioned correctly). The DAC will indeed take a 24/96 input via the coax and optical inputs. This is contrary to what I mentioned and contrary to the HiFi News and Record Review write up as well! I guess in this case it probably bypasses the internal upsampling (or perhaps re-clocks it) since the input is already at 24/96.

Anyway, yes I agree it is a great DAC! I am not sure I have heard anything better at anywhere remotely near the price and a better power supply than the tiny wall wart provided can make a noticeable difference.

 

I'm interested in this DAC, as I have the V-DAC and notice some of the negatives you've cited. I tool feel ambivalent about upsampling DACs and I'm not sure I can afford the Rega right now.

Do you think it would work well with S/PDIF from a CD player (used as a transport), as I am not currently set up for PC-based audio? How's the bass.....would it work for softer 60s/70s...rock...The Doors, Cream, etc.?

Unfortunately, I may have difficulty purchasing it in the US if it has just been released. Sumiko in Berkelely, CA (near my residence) is checking, but they're not sure if it's available yet.

Thanks so much for your detailed write-up!

 

Hi Audiohound,

JonP may want to answer as well, but from my point of view the coax output I am using from the Olive music server is akin to using a CD player in the same manner. Bass response is very good from my perpective, ie not too full or overblown but transparent.

I am actually going to put a CD player on the toslink output as well just to increase flexibility from my point of view.

The output of the DAC is only 1 millivolt which is on the lowish side, but ensures you will not overload the input of your amplifier and will also allow you plenty of room to move on your amplifiers volume control.

As an aside I actually have no interest in the USB part of the DAC so that area is all JonP's

Hope Sumiko come to the party sooner rather than later with stock. There should be no real issue with this device as it has a plug in external power supply which of course can and will probably be sourced locally.

 

I can't really add anything because as has been pointed out, I only use this device with the USB input (that was the whole reason I bought it). That said, the only caveat I would add is that my input data is 16 bit, 48 khz so it is integer upsampled by the DAC to 96 khz. On the other hand, if a CD player is connected to it, it will no longer integer upsample - instead the conversion is a rather awkward 44.1 - 96 Khz.

I only mention this because in my experience it generally takes quite sophisticated resampling algorythms (such as iZotope) to perform non-integer resampling without hurting the sound.

I did measure (not in a scientifc, calibrated way) the artifacts from this new Project DAC Box USB by feeding the output of a number of test tones into my ASUS Xonar ST card recording at 24/192 (the card is known to be measure exceptionally well, is fully 24 bit and has artifacts and noise floor far, far below that of the Project DAC.

The outcome of these measurements is that there is quite noticeable artifacting from the upsampling process, however all these artifacts are below the 96 dB noise floor of the 16 bit USB input. But they are very obvious if you measure down to -144dB which is what my spectrogram software could do.

So it is quite possible this DAC won't handle CD as well as it handles the USB output from my Netbook as the artificating my not be so friendly with non-integer calculations. But I have not been able to test this in a way that does not bring other variables into the equation apart from the DAC itself.

One other point as well - HiFi News stated that the coax and optical inputs had higher jitter than the USB input.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with the DAC, Linolad

JonP: what is integer upsampling?

 

Hi,

Integer upsampling means that the higher (in this case output) sample rate divided by the lower (in this case input) sample rate results in a integer (whole number). For example:

1. Upsampling to 96 Khz from 48 Khz is 96/48 = 2 (integer upsampling)
2. Upsampling to 192 khz from 48 Khz is 192/48 = 4 (integer upsampling)
3. Upsampling to 96 Khz from 44.1 Khz is 96/44.1 = 2.18 (non-integer upsampling)

The same can apply for down-sampling as well. For example:

1. Downsampling from 96Khz to 48 Khz is 96/48 = 2 (integer downsampling)
2. Downsampling from 48 Khz to 44.1 Khz is 48/44.1 = 1.09 (non-integer downsampling).

 

Thanks, JonP...you're an incredibly knowledgeable guy! In light of that, your recommendation for this DAC holds a lot of clout, so I hope I get to listen to it at some point.

 

That is very kind of you, but of course please remember whaever I say here is just my opinion. Though it is nice when one's opinion is shared by well-regarded professional reviewers as well, as is the case here.

Also, don't get too concerned about the relatively awkward upsampling from CD, because as I mentioned I was extremely suprised how well the DAC upsamples to begin with. It is only the fourth upsampling DAC I have ever heard that does it beautifully, the other three being the dCS Debussy and Paganini DACs and the Cambridge Audio 840C.

I absolutely love my DAC Box USB. I can now listen to digital for as long as I like to each day with absolutely zero listening fatigue. Infact it has got to the point where I have to drag myself away from listening to music to get on with life's essentials. Best $299 AUD I have ever spent. I just think budget-minded classical / acoustic music fans are going to love this DAC if they can't stretch to something like the Rega.

To think it came within 5% score of the dCS Debussy is quite amazing, given that the DAC Box USB costs as much as a few tankfuls of petrol whereas the Debussy costs as much as a good quality used car.

 

Sounds too good to be true

 

Interesting - I've been very happy with Pro-Ject's analog-oriented products but haven't heard too much about their DACs so far. I was a little curious about the NOS DAC (DAC Box FL, I believe) but I couldn't really see what would make it different than any of the $100-200 NOS DACs filling up eBay right now.

 

Does anyone have a recommendation for purchasing this DAC from a non-US online vendor....since my guess is that it may take a few months before it is available stateside? Of course, I'm leery of possibly exorbitant shipping charges and taxes. I've ordered a few Japanese SACDs and, ouch, they cost over $60 (US). I guess a UK dealer would be closer than Australia or New Zealand.

 

Hi,

If I were you I would probably just wait till it becomes available in the States. Reason being you probably won't save much and if there is a warranty claim (admittedly almost non-existent for Project stuff) then it would be a pain. Also, you will need to supply your own 9 volt DC power supply, since in all liklihood you will get one with an incorrect pin layout or 240 volt input.

One the other hand, if you can't wait / resist / whatever, I can very strongly recommend Gary from Analogue Seduction in the UK. He is one of the very best online sellers I have ever dealt with. He is 100% honest in all aspects of his dealings and I have bought 3 things from him over the last 8 months with zero problems. You also won't pay VAT because you are not in Europe, so his webshop will take off 17.5%(??) of whatever it is.

That would probably mean the DAC would arrive at your front door for something resembling the mid $200's US (he offers Fedex or ordinary post, but ordinary post these days just seems to be getting more hopeless as time goes by - like 5 weeks airmail from Europe and 4 weeks airmail from the US.

http://www.analogueseduction.net/product/Project_DAC_Box_USB_PRODACUSB

 

Thanks for the info regarding Analogue Seduction, which I believe is in the UK. I had thought that there was a difference in US vs. UK plugs and voltages as related to the wall socket only. And that there would be no difference for the 9V plug on the DAC's chassis. In other words, I already have an outboard PSU that I use for my V-DAC. Can't recall, it may be set to 12V, however, several adjustable voltages are available. Couldn't I just take my existing PSU and, once I set it to 9V, plug it into the Pro-Ject? Or, will this not work because the DAC Box is somehow set up for British households? What am I not understanding?

Your advice about waiting is probably wise, yet I'm still interested in knowing what I would deal with if I bought a unit from the UK.

 

Yes, all I meant was you will need your own external power supply - I can't see why the actual unit itself would be any different. The unit does require a slim-line DC plug though - thicker than the type used for today's mobile (cell) phone chagers but substantially thinner than many DC plugs. I have only seen these plugs available with those power supplies that include multiple DC plug fittings.

The power supply I bought had about 7 different DC plugs and the one I use is the second smallest (one up from the mobile phone sized one).

 

JonP....thanks, again!

 

Jon, I forgot to ask you: do you happen to recall...does the 9V plug on the Pro-Ject happen to be the same size as what's used for the V-DAC? If so, I'd be all set should I have luck in getting a unit thru Sumiko or elsewhere at some point.

Thanks!

 

Hi Hodgo,

I am impressed with the Project brand generally as it has always (to me anyway) represented a good sound and good value proposition. I was in the audio retail game so I used to sell them. I owned a Project Perspective turntable back in '02 and wish I hadn't sold it to my brother. I had also owned a Roksan, an LP12 and an Elite Rock previously so I was reasonably keen on good turntable sound. The Perspective turned out to be my last turntable (please forgive me!)

 

Well I remain incredibly impressed with my DAC Box USB and it is by far the best reasonably priced DAC I have ever heard for classical music. I would need to spend a very substantial sum indeed to get better classical music reproduction. I now power it by batteries, having built a simple 9 volt DC regulator between a 12 volt battery and the unit's 9 volt DC input. The battery power ameliorated the couple of qualms HiFi News had with the unit when they tested it (slightly dry treble and slightly bloated upper bass). Had they tested it with the batteries it likely might have come within a few percent of the dCS Debussy in terms of sonics, given it was only 6% behind using the cheap wall-wart.