$500 tube DAC with optical input to the rescue.
We were recently forced (by purchasing a microwave-poisonous TV without analog RCA outputs!) to find a decent, plain DAC to convert the TV’s S/PDIF TOSLINK optical uncompressed stereo interleaved digital PCM into plain-jane, unbalanced RCA analog outputs – in a device preferably having a simple, analog volume control knob (since the TV loses that ability via optical audio out – ugh!). Our worldly choices are the usual $30 junky tic-tac-size toys from Places Unknown; a seemingly decent $200 device (which showed up DOA); the expensive stuff, which seemed overkill, mysterious, and unsatisfying; and the $500 tube DAC stuff long-made by Scott Nixon.
