DAC’s

Those who say DACs don’t matter, zeroes and ones, I want to smoke what you are smoking. Or have tin ears. Or never listened to music. I would have saved myself a lot of money.

It’s like those guys with a Chromecast Audio as a “DAC” who bitch about Analog sounding so much better than their Digital. Well… no shit.

@jerryg123 :

…..paid my taxes. I will spend my money as I see fit.

Yup! That’s sums it all up. You owe nothing to anyone 

 

richardmathes 8 posts 10-27-2022 at 04:14pm  $10,000 for a DAC? Someone's priorities, i.e., the important ones, the social ones, are out of whack. Never mind that the claim that there is a audible difference of $9700. Or is the $3000 device a piece of crap? Or or we just saying, "I've got money to blow?" And little common sense? Even as practical advice, this is worthless to anyone who lives in a world of budgets.

The MSRP of my DAC is $20,000. Esoteric N-01XD. Or it was when I bought it a couple of years ago.

Is this too bad? Can I be “saved”? 

You probably cannot be saved,

Oh Sherlock… Obviously 🙄 

OK…
We have suggestions of:

• $100 dongle 
• $1-2k DAC
• $7k DAC
• $20k + DACS

I do not think it is dishonourable for the OP to try and listen to that DAC before jumping in.

You forgot the most important part: one should only buy what he / she can afford. 

So, to answer the question- Do I need a Roon Core?

From my experience, no.

@gdnrbob : Your Innuos IS the Roon Core

When I play an LP and stream the same thing via Spotify, it largely sounds the same between LP, dongle, and RME.

Yup! Obviously. Everything sounds the same to you 🙄

They all sound pretty good to me.

Good. Nirvana. Then why are you in these audio forums 24/7?

@cakyol :

In my opinion, you could get a Chord Qutest for about 2k, which is one of the best DACs around, and save about 5k.

Believe me, you will never hear the difference, especially not worth a price differential of 5k, even if you have better hearing than the creature in the movie "A Quiet Place".

By that same logic, why spend $2,000 for a Chord Qutest, when you can get a “competently built” China DAC for ten TIMES less that? No?

You will not hear any difference anyways….. As YOU say