More money toward better speakers or a better DAC?


Speakers need quality content to play.  Great recordings sound very good on low end speakers.  Crappy recordings sound bad from great speakers.  Seems focus is well served on improving quality of incoming sound.  The Dac is a huge part of the equation.  
Are we all ‘cheaping’ out by not spending more for a better dac? 
emergingsoul

Showing 6 responses by emergingsoul

I am looking at bda3 .  Saw a lot of HDMI ports and got concerned.  What are they all for? This seems heavily integrate and all that stuff inside may not bode well for internal noise.


Can’t believe how awful bluesound dac is.  Outboard streamer for now is my path.  BS dac is dreadful.  See so many using it in their high end systems, also horrifying.
TUBADOUR III Non Oversampling Tube DAC,  interesting.

not sure what non oversampling dac means and what is special about a tube dac, unless it helps with treble/vocal sounds similar to a tube amp,


after taking in all the helpful comments above, I remain perplexed but closer to a next step. 
I have b&w diamond speakers and a solid amp.  a dac will be helpful.  Bluesound node 2i dac confines the music.  
A new wrinkle above is learning the longevity of a dac can be short - 3 - 5 years? What causes a dac to deteriorate so quickly?
I believe it ain’t easy doing a great job converting digital to analogue.  
So many dacs out there and any choice requires a leap of faith.  I originally started out liking the chord tt2 and now believe this will be a great choice.  Absolutely amazed how many dacs are out there, a choice is soooo difficult.  
I liked the bartok, but it seems very overpriced.  The David seems excellent but tough to tame after purchase. I like the m scaler, which seems overpriced. And tt2 seems overpriced too.  But I want a good dac and it better last a long time.
All about feeling comfortable with a purchase.  There appears to be lots of good choices.  
Intriguing to see HDMI ports on a dominant dac box.

what all can it do?  I like idea of sending Blu-ray’s thru a quality dac, what can it do for other HDMI sources like Apple TV box and cable box.  How far into avr domain is bad going?
I Am uncomfortable combining streamer and dac under one roof. Keep it pure and simple. Simaudio 680 looks very nice but pricey at $9k.

dont like chord tt2 having headphone amp. Combine tt2 with Mscaler. Don’t use headphones so tt2 may include lots of excess.