How much does a DAC do the more expensive it is?


Having spun an Oppo 105 for many years on its own before adding a Schiit Gungnir (bought for a generous steal from a wonderful seller here), I was immediately struck with how much more presence and detail the Schiit added to the Oppo's presentation. 

That Gungnir, even new, pales in comparison pricewise with 4 and 5 figure DACs I see for sale here.

So what do those much more expensive DACS do for sound? I mean, how much more information can be dug out of the digital files? Is it akin to what a good phono stage can do for a cartridge?

128x128simao

Showing 5 responses by jjss49

+1 @ghdprentice

like anything in this hobby or others, in life in general

-- spending big money to obtain an excellent desired outcome needs to be accompanied by suitable knowledge and experience

-- those without the money and/or knowledge will sometimes harbor envy and thus express sentiments of ’awww well it won’t be good money spent anyways’ - getting the most out of life, as usual, is a function of what you put into it...

@simao

you likely know that you really can’t tell that a component change is better or worse for you unless you try it at some length in your own system

hearing something sound good in another person’s system only provides a rough notion of the potential a component may have in your own... there are so many other interceding variables .... otoh -- hearing something expensive sound mediocre or bad in another system tells you nothing useful, for the same reasons

with digital, it is not just the price/quality of the dac, but the streamer, the selected cabling/connection option, the purity of the local feed (there are many threads on this topic)... so it is even more complicated to get right than just paying up on a more expensive dac

this is where a good forum like this one, with many experienced, dedicated contributors, is useful... you can get a sense of who is using what, if they are happy, along with some idea on the overall quality of their system, and their dedication and experience level

just some quick examples, many well spoken, well established folks here do very well with aurender streamers, network acoustics and uptone audio lan cleansers, msb bricasti and weiss dacs are quite often cited, yet rarely (if ever) criticized (same for, say, dena pontus or mhdt orchid at a more modest price tier), and so on... reading all the contributions over a stretch of time, from credible contributors here, tells you something useful

@charles1dad

please come over this weekend, i am hosting a listening party using oscilloscopes only... we will look at sine wave traces at varying frequencies of a dozen dacs --- be prepared to be impressed!  we can sit outside on the deck enjoy the crisp winter air!!

oh yes, several of my deaf friends will be in attendance...😂🤣😅😆

All DACs are a trade off between detail, image size (height/width) and depth.

to these parameters being traded off i would add quality tone/truth of timbre, prat, and (non sonically) build quality/ergonomics/feature set