Can a DAC sort out a flat\cold amp?


My pc is connected to an external sound card (scarlett 2i4 by focusrite). I bought the Yamaha a-s1200 & am really disappointed at the brightness & the lack of bass to the extend I prefer listening to my portable JBL boombox. I'm in no position to sell or trade this amplifier so I thought a DAC with eq may help the predicament. Since auditioning my equipment is not an option in my country I have no choice but to buy something purely on recommendations. I also thought about replacing the speakers but since I listen to soundcloud & youtube i really think upscaling & eq will be much more cost effective option in sorting out this issue & may give me the confidence to try a much more expensive speaker option. what would you recommend?

128x128orenm145

Showing 4 responses by orenm145

Since you insist here's an Image of the setup. I was hoping to avoid that 😱 because as you can see this is a pretty unaesthetic room with all those cables.

the speakers are Dali concept 6 which are due for an upgrade but was postponed because of the lack of bass issue which I want to resolve first before continue to upgrade. I was thinking to get monitor audio silver 500 7g at first but in light of this amp performance I think I'll have to settle for bookshelf.

now I'm thinking that if this amp did not upgrade the sound of my old dalis may be it's not a good idea to build the new system around it. there are a lot of compromises here. right now the upgrade path will likely be a DAC & then i had my eyes on the buchardt s400 mk2. the amp will have to go at some point & i still regret buying it over the m5si\m6si but that's water under the bridge.

 

I know this amp is my problem but  i can’t just buy another 3k amp. currently my biggest problem is the bass , i’ll worry about noise later. I really don’t know what so you mean by chinese dac. Can you give an example?

buying another amp or seperates are out of the question. When i plug in my dj controller & tweak the sound mid,hi,low it sound good enough for me. Is there a way to get an eq on thouse chinese dacs?

 

as for the speakers they are not to blame since they sound good with my old amp which was a pioneer home theater 100w. Long story short i just need a cheap fix until i’ll manage to find a replacement. Cables did not help. Even buying a warmer speaker might not do the trick since this amp is not so easy to pair with speakers. 

Thanks for all the help & insights. unfortunately I don't have many options. I have a bigger room but it has a huge glass window which won't be ideal for the vibrations in higher volumes. investing in sound dampening is not a good idea since I will probably move from this apartment in about 6 months. I'm aiming to find a good balanced equipment that I can go forward with & replicate the setting in different locations with similar room sizes. changing the table is also not viable option. the speakers are front ported so I figured it's not that bad & they performed well with my old amplifier although it was under a DSP mode which was like loudness button combined with virtual surround. It wasn't true to the source & some audiophiles will call it blasphemy but the only one that need to love the sound is me so...

Tone controls do help but are individual for each recordings which can take away from the laid back & easy listening.  Also it changes something else regarding the general feel of the sound which i can't really point out maybe narrowing of the soundstage & losing separation & detail retention. The pc power supply is sitting at the bottom so i'm less worried about that. I'm starting to think may be i just need to add a sub to the mix & not rely on the towers alone. the DAC , sepakers, room , cables , cord... everything could be better but i think this is a more elementary problem. low level listening is basically non existent unless i turn the bass all the way up.

As i mentioned before i'm living in a difficult country in terms of deals , trades & second hand parts If i was to sell this i would get 1000$ & they will try to lower the price some more even though i only have this for less than a year. I lost alot of money buying equipment & trying to repair it after it failed few months down the line. Basically second hand equipment is a huge gamble here & also the repairs & restoration are really low level work borderline a scam (some even got to the courtroom)  so I was better off buying something new then dealing with second hand parts. I triple checked the phases it's pretty basic red to red white to white. the cables & interconnects are blue jeans cables & it's good enough for me. I was considering the schiit bifrost 2 but i'll do more research about the DACS suggested here. about the reviews the top end did calm down with the break in but the low end did not extend with it just stayed the same. 

The reason i thought a DAC will help is A.my DAC is not a dedicated HIFI DAC B. i listen to very lossy audio (youtube\soundcloud) & could get alot of benefit from upscaling & upsampling C. when I listen to a good source like a real 320kbps the bass problem diminishes significantly D. this amp does not come with a DAC so it's pretty much mandatory.

bobby1945

i'm not going to build a room dedicated to audio. i'm not at that point in my audiophile journey. getting the speakers from the wall will require changing the table. my pc is ok it's just an old case. here's a Picture so you can calm yourself.

crustycoot

I do get bass but at volumes too high for my liking. the seat situating in a null created by room acoustics may be an angle i need to investigate further. 

after reading all the comments I think this situation will require a sub which is something i tried to avoid cost wise.

  

I just ordered the svs sb 1000 pro. I didn’t think dac would make enough difference to justify experimenting while a sub will for sure make a big difference.I think this will serve me for both low level listening & will keep contributing after speaker upgrade , apartment moving etc… it’s not the cheapest solution but it was going to happen eventually.

Thanks for all the guys that gave thier 2 cents. I also got 1hr of professional tuner that will try & teach me/sort out/recommend what to do with all this situation.

i will update in a month or so. Because the sub is on backorder.

I know this amp is not that terrible like i made it look like but it seems to me i could have got the same results  (setup wise) or better with a cheaper one like the 6000A 

Also at this price range i think i could have done much better amp selection.