DA-S250NC Review by Audio Science Review

Overview of measurements from the DA-S250NC's DAC section on the pre-out RCA output

The DAC panel shows an output level of 0.8Vrms. Distortion is less than -110 dB, but as the output level is rather low, noise drops the SINAD to 103 dB. Still, this is a good performance compared with many other devices on the market.

Signal-to-noise ratio is good enough for 16-bit content

Almost perfect linearity

Multitone is quite good until the upper registers

Overall, the DA-S250NC remains a good DAC, the real question is how does this performance impact the amplifier part?

Overview of DA-S250NC amplifier measurements on the speaker terminal output

Measurements were taken via the USB input, with a volume setting of -16.5dB to obtain 5W of power. The DA-S250NC shows very good performance, placing it above the average of many of the products tested.

Noise performance is very good, reaching almost 16-bit SNR at 5 watts

Frequency response is very good, showing no dependence on impedance loading

Crosstalk is better than the average of all the amps tested

Extremely low distortion and noise levels for max. power of 205W

A distortion level so low that the maximum power level is measured with a THD of 0.3%.