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Does good technology guarantees musicality?

Nowadays many audiophiles think that if you DIY a state-of-the-art DAC with the implementation of the right technology and with the use of the best parts money can buy, then you will automatically get a good (and musical) sounding DAC. I personally think that this way you can get a (technically) good sounding DAC, but it is still questionable if it would sound musical too. I mean technically perfect is not synonimous with musicality. Many people are able to build a technically flawless DAC, but only a few are able to build a musical sounding DAC. Do you agree with this?

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 1 response by audioengr

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Implementation is everything in front-end gear, particularly DAC's. A good implementation can use a 10-year old D/A chip, but sound better than a new design with a newer D/A chip with better specs, and this is fairly typical. Case in point is the great specs on the AKM DAC chips, but they are not very musical IMO.

I do not recommend purchasing based on the latest chips inside. The designers skill, experience and innovation is more important IMO.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
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