Neutral Dac?


I’m curious to see people’s opinions on what they believe is the most uncolored dac? Every dac I’ve tried seems to be a flavor that deviates from neutrality in some way (smooths things over, too bright, too soft on transients, lacks bass etc...). Is there a dac that people believe gets all the fundamentals correct with leaving very little sonic footprint? What is the cost threshold needed to achieve it? I’m surprised at my own findings recently but really curious if anyone else has been searching for a fundamentally uncolored dac and what they’ve found.

   I realize the most obvious answer is "the dac with impeccable measurements" but I have also found some of them to sound unnatural (dry/bright).

schw06

Showing 3 responses by oddiofyl

I am a big believer in synergy.   I had a NAD m51.  Sounded great in my system.   Why I replaced it with the RME ,  I’ll never know.  
 

That’s not to say I didn’t like the RME , I did but the NAD has a more natural sound to me.  The RME is what you would expect from a studio DAC , clean and clear.  
 

I have an all tube system, have for a while.   Except the DAC.  I have always said I would never buy a tube DAC.   I guess my logic was that if it had tubes it would be colored and not true to the source.   
 

Then I put a LAB 12 DAC 1 Reference in the system and it’s like the best of body worlds.  Plenty of detail, great tone , body, it just rocks….

I honestly don’t care how it measures, If it’s considered neutral or lush, or whatever and however you want to describe it.  I only care about how it sounds in my system.  

Natural.   Yes.  Some DACs can sound more

like analog and less like digital.  Or bad digital anyway.   
 

If no one remembers the Sony CDP 101 is was only capable of 14 bit resolution.  The fact that it didn’t skip (usually) or have surface noise were it’s best attributes

I was playing mostly records at the time because there were only about a half a dozen rock CDs when it first came out.  They came out slowly, Classical music was getting released big time and pop / rock slowly followed 

we are definitely lucky to be able to buy great digital gear that most people can afford.   Maybe sacrifice here or there but see the value in a really good DAC.  The price / performance ratio has never been higher.