2. digital
  3. 195547-2135

New DAC - better low resolution digital music performance?

Has anyone experienced this, where a DAC upgrade shrunk the perceived enjoyment difference between low and high resolution digital music files?  After setting up a new DAC and optimizing cables and power supply, I am shocked at how much the performance separation has closed between file formats. AAC files now sound pretty good irrespective of genre, and it has me reexamining the value proposition of expensive hi res downloads.  I would add that for hi res material, it is now much easier for me to distinguish between recording quality, venue, engineering decisions - so that performance improved as well, just not as much as it did for low resolution digital music.

Hans Beekhuyzen has some thoughts on this, and claims that better digital playback systems can eliminate noise associated with severe upsampling of low res material.  My recent subjective experience bears this out.

A qualification, this is for all files played from a hard drive, not streaming. I still am not sold on streaming for critical listening, but feel it’s fine for background listening and exploring new music.  This across multiple systems of varying quality.  Hard wire to source is still hard to beat.

kn

knownothing

Showing 1 response by audphile1

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,716 posts
 

Better DACs provide better low level details. There’s better focus and layering but the images in the soundstage always grow bigger as volume goes up. As to timbre and tone, it is definitely more refined with the higher end DACs. Some of the more affordable DACs mask the artificial tone better than others by backing off those frequencies masking the digital nastiness by trying to sound darker or warmer. Some manage to be really good at this. But that’s generally the compromise you’ll be dealing with. 

@knownothing streaming can be really good and can sound as natural as CDs or CD rips. Ethernet cables on good streaming equipment in a resolving system can make a nice difference. It all depends on source material and your components. This is based on my experience. 

More to discover