do i need a new DAC

I just bought a Chord Qutest today, after spending three hours comparing it to the half-as-expensive Audiolab m-DAC+. The setup at the dealer was some PMC TwentyFive 23s driven by a Cyrus amp. The difference was really easily audible on most tracks. Those PMCs can produce prodigious bass... I genuinely thought there was a sub in the room, until I was told there wasn't. But listening at first on the m-DAC+, I didn't enjoy it, the bass felt bloated and the rest of the music seemed overwhelmed by it. Well, plugged in the Qutest, and it was a whole different story. The bass was SO much tighter and cleaner, every instrument sounded more separated, and the composition of tracks with complicated layering suddenly came together as it should have.
The only area where the m-DAC+ gave it any competition was, for example, Diana Krall's vocals, which sounded a bit warmer and richer (albeit less clear) than with the Qutest. However, applying the "warm" filter on the Qutest then brought them close to par on the vocals, while the backing instruments still sounded way cleaner with the Qutest. So, it was a surprisingly easy decision to go with the £1200 Qutest over the ~£600 m-DAC+, without even a slight bit of post-purchase doubts in my mind.
I actually pre-ordered my Qutest over a week ago (with the ability to change to the m-DAC+), and apparently it's still likely to take another two weeks to arrive at the store. Apparently a combination of case production delays and high demand has the waiting list getting on for a month, but it's easy to see why! 

i did not like the first Sabre chip i heard as it was implemented in the Oppo 105, the Oppo 205 big improvement. ditto for the first Audiolab MDAC. the new MDAC + uses the Sabre chip but sounds vastly superior to its predecessor. much more musical and warmer, fuller sounding. i was shocked at just how good it is. they also improved the PSU in the newer MDAC+ and this speaks to its larger case. i think in the case of the latest Rega Dac R they have left the upsampling to a minumum since they feel that this has an impact on SQ. the venerable Wolfson chip that is used in the Rega has been around a long time. i have one in my iPod Video and it was considered the best iPod that Apple ever produce. very musical

+1@soix

The sound converges with different topologies as the technology improves. In the end it boils down to taste. I prefer the most natural sounding DACs and the latest round of DACs in many flavours of topology are very close. The Digital “glare or etched” sound is becoming a thing of the past.

Finally , if you have a Roon or similar you can test your DAC at various sample rates. A good DAC will sound identical on all sample rates. Only poorly implemented DACs sound different due to changing filters and changing conversion methodology or changing jitter and distortion which is modulated between the music and sample rate. A good DAC should convert native red book 44.1 equally well as 192KHz and does not require any software upsampling to sound its best. The software upsampling business is the ugly stepchild born from a multitude of poorly designed DACs that sound different at different sample rates (when mathematically they should not!).

@jag

5 year old DACs are indeed pretty good. However those with the latest 9018 ESS Sabre chips are more technically advanced and measure better. The slight improvement may or may not be audible. I heard a subtle improvement in Benchmark DAC 3 over prior technology (or at least I thought I did). The new ESS chips offer lower distortion and noise floor.

You may also be better served looking for a DAC with correction for inter sample overs (few DACs offer this) and excellent jitter rejection....rather than the latest chip.

the other two DACs i am interested in are the Rega and the Audiolab MDAC+, these two still use the same architecture that they have used for the last 5 years. in the case of the Rega DAC-R they are comfortable with sticking with the trusty Wolfson 8740 in fact. NAD has not upgraded the D1050 in 5 years. their must be a good reason for these large companies not embracing the new technology and sticking with delta-sigma? wonder why Audiolab, Rega, and Nad have not changed their approach. hey if it’s not broken why fix it? i guess it’s the smaller companies that are making these perceived advances. wish someone would write a good article on these advancements.

"i have a NAD D1050 which is now 5 years old but still sounds fantastic."

Relative to what other DACs you’ve heard???

"what has happen in the last 5 years? have their really been such great strides in digital playback made? i think SS is evolving faster"

Um, no. Not even close. SS has been dead in the water relative to what’s been happening in digital-to-analog conversion IMHO. There have been very exciting new entrants into the DAC realm over the past 5 years that offer very different approaches to converting digital data to analog. If you haven’t listened to the latest R2R, NOS, etc. DACs from the likes of Schiit, Mytek, Metrum, Chord, etc., you need to do some listening. Whether it’s through the Chord approach of refining filters or the Metrum approach of improving the non-upsampling path, there has been a bit of a revolution that has recognized and is looking to surpass the limitations and artifacts of the "delta sigma" era that your NAD DAC and many others were a part of.

I’m gonna make my own pedestrian and oversimplified observation of what’s going on in today’s DAC world that hopefully translates and is roughly analogous to the tube vs. solid state debate that’s been going on for over 40 years.

I think the purveyors of the NOS/non-upsampling faith are analogous to the tube pres and amps of today in the analog world. This camp is striving to preserve the essence of the initial analog waveform in the digital world and transfer as much of that analog-ness as possible into the listening experience with as little processing possible. On the other hand, there’s the digital side that is trying to take every electronic bit available and best interpolate all those captured bits into the best analog waveform possible with as few as possible digital artifacts. In short, one camp is trying to preserve the best of analog and preserve it into the digital world, while the other is trying to capture the advantage of every last digital bit and use it to enhance the analog listening experience. Both are laudable and valid approaches IMHO, and to be perfectly honest, at this point I’m agnostic and haven’t planted my flag in either camp. But I’m vigorously rooting for both!

So, here’s my ultimate analogy and observation for you: Both of these digital camps have realized that the "old school" delta-sigma DAC process (of which your NAD DAC is one) is compromised or at least not completely natural sounding to most audiophiles. But, as with the best of solid state and tubed amplifiers and preamps, as both sides improve they are starting to sound more and more alike at their pinnacles.

So, the short answer to your question from my perspective is this -- your DAC, while maybe good for its time and price, has been left in the proverbial digital dust. Your main question now should be, should I go NOS (tube-like) or upsampling (solid state-like). And, maybe not coincidentally, the trade-offs seem to be right along the same traditional party lines as solid state versus tubes in our current industry -- and both converging as we speak. Maybe, as with our political parties, it will and should always be thus to get the best end result for the people.

OP seems to take a lot of potshots at DSD.  I listen to Classical and for me DSD has been the biggest innovation of the past 20 years.  MQA doesn’t do much for me, but there is another innovation that your current DAC doesn’t cover.
  So imo the answer to your original question is Yes— you need a new DAC

the Chord dealer where i live is only a Hugo and Mojo dealer, strange.  will have get on a plane. lol

The FPGA design allows the incoming data stream to be sampled and reclocked. I owned the QuteEx and it was the most realistic and organic sounding dac that I've heard in its price range. And 5 years later, I'll bet the Qutest is at a much higher level than the EX.

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i am using Rega interconnects, and the Supra coax cable. i went nuts with my last system and was buying $1200 interconnects, not going down that road again. pretty happy with a modest set up now.  it can easily get out of hand if you play the weakest link game. around and around we go.  i think what is being gained buy the new DSD format which really  supercharged pcm, is maybe greater dynamics. maybe not transparency?  have not heard it. may want one.  would like to hear from some forum members who upgraded from the NAD and to what?  and what was gained?

Did the OP change out the power cord at least 3 times? How about the USB or SPDIF cable? Or the interconnects? 
If not, you have some work to do before you learn any DAC's limits.
A DAC not optimized is a shame.

i have noticed that Rega is still using the Wolfson chip that was used in the original Rega DAC c.2012 for the DAC-R c.2015. why change why fix something if it ain't broken. i have a Wolfson in my iPod Video and it is considered to be the best iPod that Apple ever produce.  so Rega in 2015 decided not to down the Sabre road but kept the Wolfson? the Cirrus DAC  in my NAD is very good sounding and Wolfson bought their company.  maybe DSD and the newer formats me sound better, but just another excuse to buy the White Album.  we may have reached the pinnacle of standard PCM, not sure what DSD can offer, have not heard it. to recreate a perfect analog signal we would have to sample to infinity?  is this possible. can the human ear really decern the difference between a well recorded analog that has been converted to digital. the source analog recording is just as important as the DAC at the other end. a great sounding record will most likely yield a good sounding CD.  i agree with lowrider57 that PSU's can make a big difference. their is a company called  SBooster out of the UK, that makes a linear outboard PSU for the NAD D1050.  have not heard it.  hard to find used also.  looking forward to hearing the Qutest, but will have to fly down to Kuala Lumpur to Circle Audio when i attend the MPO next month. no Chord dealers here. 

Dacs are like any other component , A tone control . No two will sound exactly the same . Some will be bass heavier , more treble than the next one. ect....

Keep that NAD on hand to do comparisons . Buy used , buy smart and enjoy and learn from your own experience .

First, let me say I'm a big fan of Chord DACs. 
@jag, are u planning on only playing computer audio files, since your NAD is USB only? The Chord Qutest is capable of so much more. It has multiple hires inputs;
USB Galvanic Isolation, plus (2) 384kHz BNC Coax Inputs. It can be used with computer audio, CD, and a streamer.

The FPGA design allows the incoming data stream to be sampled and reclocked. I owned the QuteEx and it was the most realistic and organic sounding dac that I've heard in its price range. And 5 years later, I'll bet the Qutest is at a much higher level than the EX.

With any small DAC, adding a linear power supply will increase the sound quality in a big way. Compare the small stock switch mode PS to a LPS with a large transformer and the dac is now capable of better dynamics and soundstaging.

i really respect the work of Dr. Watts. had one of his DAC’s back in the day when he was designing for DPA, the PCM 1-2.  have booked an audition to hear the Qutest, on my short list for sure. i am also suspect that Rega will shortly upgrade the DAC-R to match the design of the new Brio amp. the new Audiolab MDAC+is a big improvement over the older design i hear. have not heard it. but i did hear the Audiolabs DAC/amp combo. very good. still my little NAD and the new Rega brio continues to delight. i have heard the new Brio with the DAR-R and they naturally make great music together. all Rega all the way?

The Chord Qutest is said to be equivalent to the Hugo 2, not the Mojo. Good choice if you don't need portability, headphone amp.

06-24-2018 12:59pm Still thinking over a Rega dac-r, a gungnir, a chord mojo, a couple models from teac. I'll use a mac mini I just got and a seagate personal cloud NAS. Not sure if I need DSD. I don't understand the technical aspects of it. If a dac can receive a signal at any current format frequency and decode it, how come it can't do it if it's streamed? How does the dac even know it's streamed? Doesn't the music player pull the signal into its memory and send it from the ram anyway? (I'm planning on using software that does that). And do I even care? That is, is DSD really the future? I've read such positive things about the rega and the gungnir but they don't do DSD.
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