The CD player is a Denon DVD 2900... she has served me well... I'm thinking about selling my Mac pre and buying a Parasound P6... has all the features and (I think) a great DAC built in. It's confusing for me...
Are DAC's overpriced?
External DAC's are pretty expensive imho... BUT I don't know that much on how to choose one. I want mostly cd's in my small two channel system... I am rebuilding after selling my Logans and Mac amp to go back to "drivers"! The Logans wore me out with Maintenance. Should I buy a new cd player or get a new DAC for my old player?
Showing 7 responses by captbeaver
itsjustme... I am real... at least the IRS and my mortgage company think so. lol The question was "are" they overpriced. I am a lifelong musician and almost all of my tube amps are custom built and I play PRS guitars with mostly boutique effects pedals so I understand what goes into making high end equipment. I am looking to run a simple simple cd-preamp-amp-speakers-gin n tonic- comfy chair system. Now... lots of folks want me to run a DAC with my current cd player which played well but is an older model. Looking into this I have found the price of a standalone DAC to be ALL over the map. I understand this and how it works BUT DAC's seem to be very trendy at the moment ( no disrespect meant) and I can't see paying 3-20 thousand dollars for one, nor can I, and want to discuss "if" they are the trending component at the moment. I don't know much about DAC's as a component and came here to learn a few things... do I need one with such a simple setup? :) |
chayro... "Just a little point here - I had a 2900 and it was a well-built unit with a smooth, non-offensive sound. I hope you find a nice dac you are happy with, but don't automatically assume you will prefer it to what you have. That's why you really have to try and see for yourself. Personally, I prefer 1-box units for their simplicity and not having to deal with digital cables, reclockers, whatever. But I'm a simple guy. :)" I received a "Box O Goodies" today from my mentor In the industry and I will say this... I don't need a DAC with the 2900... not with my simple two channel system! I changed the speaker wires and that made a very nice, much more open sounding rig. I'm not going Tidal or buying a new computer to listen to something I don't own! http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy302/thegainster/49667060_235612500648601_5983303984981475328_n.... |
So, amps are behind DAC’s... D/A conversion technology has outpaced the development of new power amplifiers. This means that the power amplifier has become a limiting factor in many audio systems. For example, the noise and distortion produced by the Benchmark DAC3 D/A converter is 20 to 30 dB lower than that produced by most high-quality power amplifiers. Until now, this meant that the DAC3 could not be fully appreciated. Benchmark set out to solve this problem by creating an amplifier that matches the performance of the DAC3. |