This is a review and measurements of Nobsound NS-DAC3 Pro DAC and headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. I see it on Amazon for USD $140 with free shipping from China.This is the type of DAC you see in tons of Chinese websites with tempting features for the price. As you can imagine, there is nothing glamorous about such products. The packaging is as cheap as you can get. There is even a small CD with the drivers for your nostalgic feelings about computing days long gone. A couple of photocopied pages complete the picture as far as the manual is concerned.The metal enclosure is not bad though and brings some uniqueness in this super crowded market:As you can see, increasingly we see Bluetooth added to these small DACs. Also nice is dual headphone jacks.In the back we have the usual S/PDIF, Toslink and USB inputs.Anyway, let's see how she measures.Here is the dashboard view using the headphone jack with the output adjusted to 2 volts (line out with 2.3 volt output was almost identical):Needless to say, this is very disappointing. Specifications state 0.001% distortion at 2.2 volt RMS. We have 0.009% or almost an order of magnitude higher. The culprit is that third harmonic which peaks to almost -80 dB itself. Naturally, our SINAD (signal over noise and distortion) is pretty dismal at 81 dB:Let's look at power output with 300 ohm load:We have decent amount of power here but unfortunately the noise and distortion are quit excessive compared to competing products (Topping DXC3 Pro shown above).At this point, I lost my appetite for running more tests. Clearly there are design issues here (I suspect in the buffer/amplifier section). Doubtful that the unit was measured to verify any of the specs published (although power rating is close to mine).It is tempting to go bargain shopping in asian markets for DACs. Prices are lower and features a mile long. Alas, I have been personally burned over and over again, not having found a single performant unit. This is another example of it. The lesson here is to not get excited over formats listed, DAC chips and specs shown. Unless you see real measurements like I am showing, the performance likely won't be there.-----If you like this review,using Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview ), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal ( https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ).