High resolution digital is dead. The best DAC's killed it.
The Sigma Delta architecture has to my ears a sound that gives digital a bad reputation. Just bad implementations. If you do the digital filtering right, it can easily beat all the old chips, including 1541/1702/1704. I designed DACs with the 1704 as well. Musical, but not live like my Sigma Delta DAC. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Sorry don’t know about yours, but totally the opposite for me, no Delta Sigma I’ve heard can match it with those three R2R Multibit dac chips you mentioned or others when implemented well, for "prat", "boggie factor" and "dynamic slam" when converting PCM redbook. That's the point. You have not heard every DAC, so making sweeping statements is not useful. The dynamics and clarity I get is unsurpassed. Every time a customer brings over or ships me a DAC to try, it is disappointing. Other vendors have brought their DAC's over (I wont mention) and they lasted 30 seconds in the system because they sounded so bad. Even the other vendors wanted me to remove them. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
I also use a SOtM USB regenerator, but with my own power supply. Makes ALL the difference with USB: https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1 Inserts in-line with the USB cable. Simple. Need 2 cables, each 1-2m long. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Polarity has some effect, but it has more to do with pressurization of the room than imaging IME. If you want to properly test this and you have balanced analog cables in your system somewhere, then there is a simple tool: Just solder a female and male XLR connector together and connect pins 2 and 3 between them. Make 2. Insert this into your cabling. Test with the same track, with and without the adapter. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
