Do some DACs "handle" sibilance better than others?


I recently watched a  Hans B. review of the Ferrum Wandla in which he states that it "handles sibilance well," or something to that effect. Up to that point, I'd never come across such a comment, so I'm wondering whether anyone here has found that certain DACs are more/less prone to sibilance?  

 

 

 

stuartk

Showing 1 response by desktopguy

OP, the answer is yes. After years of painfully bright digital music from CDs on various delta/sigma DACs, I found NOS & R2R DACs, and everything changed. Some of them manage to be bright, but way fewer than any random assortment of d/s DACs would be.

Listening to one of them now (MHDT Labs Orchid with the best NOS buffer tube I could find). Not bright, not sibilant. In the system 8 feet away is another great sounding NOS DAC, the Metrum Onyx. They don't sound the same, but neither one is bright or sibilant except to a very minor extent on the worst, edgiest music cuts out there (cuts that would razor my ears off on pretty much any d/s DAC).