[LAU] Fiio USB DAC

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sun, 8 Oct 2017 21:07:36 +0100, dekkzz78 at gmail.com wrote:
>I have been offered a usb fiio dac and i was thinking
>
>1) compatability with linux?

Hi,

google if that device is class compliant.

>2) are there better more linux friendly DACs?

You neither mentioned what product from the usb fiio DACs, nor for what
purpose. However, class compliant audio device are "linux friendly",
those that require a proprietary driver aren't. Regarding the purpose,
maybe to get better output sound quality than provided by the onboard
device, not only the quality of the used DAC is important, much
important is the design of the analog circuit. A cheap device with a
"BASS-OFF-ON"-switch is probably not what you want to use as a decent
headphone amp.

For my taste the headphone amp of my RME HDSPe AIO is very good, while
the two of my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 don't fit to my needs, so I
seriously doubt that I would like one of the fiio DACs, but I might be
mistaken. Consider to read reviews about the DAC and amp chips they are
using. I've seen they advertise by mentioning the DAC and amp chips
for at least some of their products. 

Regards,
Ralf