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Analyzing DACs

As I am new to the hifi hobby, reading various product reviews and noting the details of the test environment have made me very confused.  I understand Stereophile is the hifi bible. In the publication’s DAC published tests the reviewers almost always tested the DAC connected directly to the amplifier. I think I understand why—nothing in the chain influencing the DAC sound. Is that the correct assumption? If that’s the case why incorporate a preamp if the DAC has a preamp section that is a common feature even on high end DACs? I’m in the market for a new DAC. I’m trying to avoid unnecessary components if possible. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.  

tee_dee

Showing 1 response by decooney

decooney
1,908 posts
 

+1 @bigkidz "You cannot pick a components by measurements alone."

 

Glad to see this statement in the first sentence to advise newbies more. A few years back I followed ASR tests, bought (and later returned) a highly praised DAC, with 125-128db signal to noise ratio, and all of these great measuring parameters.

Then, later to discover all of the different type dac connections were not tested and reported, and after playing the dac for a while it was one of the most sterile and boring sounding dac units I’ve ever tried or owned. The dac got returned for a full refund, thankfully. Agree, you cannot pick a component by measurements alone if you care about how it sounds too.

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