Once you reach a certain level, everything is really designed for 2 Channel, where as long as it fits in the rack it doesn’t matter.
There are other considerations, where space can be advantageous, but it’s mostly because that’s what 2Ch people are looking for.
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Totaldac, ideon, nagra, and mojo are also smaller than full size
Figured that’ll be part of the answer…
Anyone know anything about this one?
I don’t consider Totaldac or Mojo desk size appropriate… they aren’t a Pacific sure but they ain’t small.
Admittedly you’re going to have a hard time finding a truly small high end dac setup because you also need to consider the front end requirements alongside the dac itself. Really I think the weiss 501, nagra something, chord dave (kinda?), resonessence invicta mirus pro se, and some others I guess but really even those are kinda on the larger side of things for a “compact” desk setup
Another option would be rack mounted options that you get an under the desk mount for like going with lavry, crane song, etc or whatever else might fit in a under desk rack sized shelf like something from berkeley as an example which wouldn’t take up floor space and wouldn’t cut too much into leg room either.
But I really think you’re just better off finding more space if you can either under a desk, another rack off to the side, hell even some wall mounted shelfs if done right, because really most anything high end isn’t going to be all that small just because they 1. aren’t designed to be, 2. the better internals typically aren’t able to be made more compact without some sacrifice, and really the amount of small high performing amps at the level you want are going to be more slim as well.
While I think you can def get some good compact options, a lot of them just aren’t going to be what I’d consider the upper echelon of performance. It’s hard for me to give any real suggestions of what might be considered “small” because I feel like what I consider small is too warped by some of the overly large gear I’ve gotten used to lol. I would consider something like totaldac or mojo size potentially desk friendly so there’s that lol
Edit: exogal comet plus for sure
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How about using a DAP as a DAC? Is that even possible? Should add that it has to support streaming though and not just local files…
A longer headphone cable is a lot cheaper. It’s not for everybody but compromising can save you BIG BUCKS. When you’re okay compromising on a desktop system for general work and general listening, YouTube and such, a good DAC and Amp can be had for under 1K.
Then get a long HP cable for when you want to critically listen while at your desk. 
It’s possible, but you might run into usability issues and some other concerns, such as battery life problems down the line, potentially lackluster usb support to a pc, or just not great value if it’s only going to be used as a dac. You’d need a dap with android then if you wanted streaming directly off the dap otherwise you could just stream from the pc and use the dap over usb
I guess it depends on how close your desk is to your rig though, I wouldn’t go over 15ft on a headphone cable. But I would agree that I’d take longer cabling over gimping my electronics just for size reasons if that tradeoff is possible
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15’ in my room puts me in the next room. 3 meters from me to the LTA. lol It’s why I suggested it. The rabit hole can get quite deep if we don’t take a moment to think through our irrational thoughts on the hobby.
This isn’t for my main chain, which is next to my desk on the rack and can do with normal cables (although I prefer longer cables than most I think).
I was thinking of a semi portable / transportable chain with the Enleum HPA-23RM
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Oh then yeah I’d totally get a dap to keep the portable focus up. If you wanted something with streaming though hmmmm, most of the daps which I’ve thought had really great dacs tend to be non android based
The latest Mojos are only 9’’ wide - is that too much? Of course the 16’’ depth might be a PIA for you.
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Came here to suggest the eXtruded Mojos but they are deceptively long!
When I think of small footprint it’s much smaller than that… doesn’t need to be BF2 size but after $2K suddenly everything’s huge lol
The ifi Pro iDSD is a good size for what I’m thinking as an example. Ares II is good size but too much compromises on SQ.
I’d say transportable more than portable.
If you think for instance of a BF2-RNHP stack, why can’t we build something maybe a bit bigger (twice the size?) but high(ish) end. I think that Enleum amp is really cool but don’t really understand the use case their aiming for in the market… maybe I’m just missing something in my understanding
Chord TT2? Prob a good tier match for the Enleum I guess and maybe the synergy as well given their characteristics may bring you someplace neutralish.
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I don’t think they are expecting you to use it with a full sized DAC.
High end DAC’s are almost all aimed at 2 Channel, no one is designing them for headphone systems, and portability isn’t usually a consideration. The Enleum is what about 6” by 9” by 1”. That’s tiny, for anything even vaguely highend at that size you’d need to go battery as the primary power source.
I can see the usecase, if you want an office system you want to lug in daily, but it’s pretty niche to want a highend system in your office.
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A step down from what was mentioned bu audio byte and the new ferrum dac may be options.
Basicaly why I gave up on my personal gol for a small dac. There simply arent many options at the end of the day.
TBH, its also going to depend on what shape of space one has. Like AIC has got horrendous shape for lots of people because it so damn deep and im sure they would prefer the layout of a wa33 (basicaly same size without tubes, but rotated 90 deg), but in my case I have only a tiny room for front pannel but like 30" of depth so it 100% fits in my “small” space.
Absalutely it is!
oh…
but really, there are only a few daps I think get close to desktop performance in the 3-5k range. The P6P (a step or two higher than the other two as a pure dac), LPGT, and N8ii. 2 more that may be worth a shout but that I havent tried are sp3000, HM1000 (quad chip) and LP6/ti/7ae. Unfortunately the two L&P options dont have streaming (though BT on p6p is shockingly good) and the USB input is shit (apparently coax input on lp6 is also shit). I absalutely think that a dap can be viable in place of a desktop dac, but not if its primary purpose is to be used as a dac.
Should have said this off the bat tbh. On a personal level, I would go withe LPGT or P6P (and just use LDAC BT for streaming). LP6 having no BT in and shit USB/coax in kinda removes it from the running here. That said, LP6 straight up is better than P6P → HM-01m into anything but hd800s tbh.
The use case is “transportable”. Aka, setup at a coffee shop/library/etc. Its an extremely popular formfactor in asia.
if 23rm has a similar sig to hm-01m it wont be a good pairing doubling down in some real textural smoothness and politeness.
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Would feel similar of p6p or lpgt, I’d also potentially consider an ibasso dx300 max ti, top tier a&k, or qpm, although the ibasso and a&k would be the only ones with streaming capabilities really sans bt mode on others
The bakoon is super hit or miss on pairings, and it’s only really good with current drive not voltage drive. That being said I’d hope the new one is a technical step ahead of an 01m and more like a hpa 21
Wouldn’t a Hugo 2 make more sense in that regard since it’s battery powered too so it can be fully portable
from what I read the 23rm will sound like the 23r but with less power, take from that whatever you understand lol but it’s basically their take on a headphone focused amp instead of speakers
streaming isn’t really a requirement if it can be used as a DAC with a computer I guess but that introduces USB and noise to the chain that I’d rather do without
I think its less “hit or miss” and more “are the technicalities you are giving up worth what you are getting”. I assume the new one will be a step even further up from HPA-21, but I would still second guess using it vs internal amp from P6P on lots of stuff tbh.
It makes sense form factor wise, I just dont really like it 
I flat out wouldnt trust this description tbh. Current drive output has some inherent differences from voltage drive even on similar devices IMO (a notable one being some extremely trippy staging). This may be true of their voltage output, but tbh, I think I would take other amps in the 23RM price range over 13R (that its supposedly a step down from) if there is no current drive in the mix…
I’m going to try the 23rm at canjam but I doubt I’ll get a good sense of what it’s capable of… not even sure what DAC they’ll use it with
it’s all just theory for now anyway, I’m kind of forcing myself to think of a way to use it to get some enleum sound back in the house lol