DAC 'Scam' Vid

+1 @smodtactical 

+1 @mahgister 

I heard a SIGNIFICANT difference with each of my moves.

1917: iPhone/Pure DAC 

2019: Devialet 400

2023: Vinnie Rossi L2S preamp with DAC

2024: Playback Designs MPD-8

The PURE was not good enough for background music. The Devialet was okay. The VR showed me that digital could be eminently listenable. The PD blew me away. The latter uses an FPGA, but also incorporates a superb analog preamp section along with three separate power supplies, one for each digital channel and one for the analog section.

It has pretty much replaced my need (but not desire) for analog. And Maghister is correct about the impact of the listening environment. Without room treatment, what you hear is not music but a smear of notes. Might be a very nice smear, but a smear nonetheless.

That's what a lot of these other Audiogon members love. Snake oil. This DAC thing isn't new,  but add it to the list of things that are killing this hobby.

When you can buy a state of the art transport for $3,000 but a state of the art DAC costs $15,000, something is wrong.

Are you paying for parts, voodoo, or doodoo?

The guy clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. Take a cheap DAC. Swap out it's crappy power supply with a nice linear one and tell me if you can't hear a difference. If that DAC has a socketed op amp for its output stage, swap out the op amp for  a nice discreet one and tell me if you can't hear a difference again.

Is there a lot of snake oil in high-end audio? Of course. But to say that nothing in a DAC matters except the chip is just completely untrue.

I went from a 1K DAC to a 6K+ DAC.  The difference was mind blowing.