newbie DAC question

@georgelofi fantastic description, thank you for taking the time to explain. I'm leaning towards a B-stock Bifrost multibit now :)

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm looking for a little more clarity on vocals, and a little more "life" for delicate passages, if that makes sense. I've used DAC/amps for headphones before and would describe the difference (between using and not using one) as "removing a film" from over the music, and I wonder if I could achieve similar results with a stereo?

Thanks again!

And I apologize for any ignorance/confusion relating to this topic, DAC's are very far out of my comfort zone... 

@yage thanks! And by sources do you mean CD player? Or do you mean it'll improve with the addition of the DAC on top of the CDP?

@jburidan they should be, I've had them for over a month and they have gotten several hours a day of play time. But I got the B6's off of Amazon actually :)

@georgelofi that's good to know, thanks! What makes the multibit better than the standard one? Is that the same as the "analog upgrade" I keep reading about?

@yage thanks for the recommendation! I just bought a coax from Blue Jeans and an open box Musical Fidelity V90Dac so we'll see if I can see an improvement

So I bought a Blue Jeans Cable Belden 1694A Coax, RCA terminated at both ends. I've heard some people say that coax is inferior to optical. Thoughts? Or is it one of those things that's endlessly debated with no concrete conclusion?

@edincleve I am so sorry I didn't see this earlier. I have been playing my entire (small) CD collection through it for a while now, as well as a Chromecast Audio streaming Spotify's premium "extreme quality". I did notice a decent difference with the V90 DAC, although it was entirely based on memory... However, I played my most familiar CD's that I knew extremely well. I wouldn't say it was an EXTREME difference, but the differences I noted were things like: bass was smoother and more distinct; highs were crisper; vocals were more realistic; things like that. Things you'd balk at if you were a cynic like me, but then realize the difference for yourself.

Also, I'm using my CDP's coax output to my DAC. I've also no way to do a direct comparison, so I regrettably can't do an A/B comparison...  

@erik_squires actually I did a decent amount of direct comparisons between CD and CA quality. My overall impression is that, no, the CA does not sport same-as-cd quality. Not really a shocker for $35! However - the quality is remarkably close. On the albums I used to test this out, I noticed a slight lack of high end detail (appears softer, more laid back) and a small lack of overall THEREishness, if that makes sense. When compared directly, CDs sounded more spacious and the CA sounded more like a center channel and two front surrounds, but just barely. Despite having no specs posted about it, the overall performance is so close in my (budget) system that unless I had the cd version to compare it with, I would have a difficult time hearing any deficiencies. My setup isn't mercilessly revealing and it's not terribly pricey, so others might have different opinions!

@coli I'll be honest, at the price range I'm working with, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a receiver, integrated amp, or amp/preamp stack. I like the *idea* of a simple integrated amp the most, but I think most people wanting to spend less than $300 on an amp would be just as happy following your suggestion.

@coli I believe you - in fact, I've become a tad disillusioned with the "audiophile-grade" moniker that gets tossed around by "professionals". Mainly because I've been testing out different aspects of my setups and have consistently been surprised that I can't hear any differences; mainly with differences in DACs, interconnects, speaker stands, and speaker placements. These are things that we've all read should make a HUGE difference in sound quality, but I consistently found to be nonexistent. 

If you wouldn't mind explaining, how do interconnects have a bigger effect with an integrated amp (or stack of amps) vs an AV receiver?

@mesch there is absolutely nothing wrong with my amp! In fact, I LOVE my Music Hall. I think I was too influenced by the likes of Stereophile, Steve Guttenberg, etc the last couple of years as I've gotten more heavily into audio. Maybe DACs, interconnects, power conditioners, etc have a big effect on systems costing 10's or 100's of thousands of dollars, but I am beginning to doubt these same things will produce a noticeable difference in cases like mine (and anyone else who won't spend more than $1500 for a single setup).

@bcgator I completely agree with you. When I'm ready for an upgrade, my speakers will be the first target! However - I have never enjoyed music more than when listening to those Elacs. I am constantly amazed at how much I love them. So I'm not yet in any hurry to replace them. 

I'm in complete agreement with both of you. Also a little disappointed that the mainstream publications or authors seem to have lost touch with these observations you've made... It appears to me that these "audiophiles" are doing their passion a disservice this way.

Without the Valhalla 2 cords feeding my Sutherlands, the perfection I spoke of earlier began to come apart. The effect produced one of those puzzling "Did I hook something up wrong?" moments. Pachelbel's Canon in D was once again the disjointed mish-mash it had been before I first installed the Valhalla 2 loom. Violins again sounded aggressive and edgy, even in their lower ranges. The individual elements of the recording, so distinct and clear with the Valhalla 2s in the system, now bled together into something wide and deep, but incoherent and inconsistent. Any sense of musical tempo or flow vanished; at best, when a simple passage would emerge, the adjective I found inescapable was strident.

That's an excerpt from a recent Stereophile review of the new, $85,000 line of Nordost Valhalla interconnects, cables, and cords. This is basically a paragraph telling readers how sucky his $100,000+ system sounded without the $6,000 power cord. It's this kind of thing that I think throws noobs like myself off. These kinds of articles make it look like there are HUGE rewards to be reaped by upgrading EVERYTHING in your system to the max. While that might possibly be true for an extremely expensive and revealing system, it is definitely not the case lower down the food chain. 

http://www.stereophile.com/content/nordost-valhalla-2-reference-cables#D65M2bWQtqLyEEMv.97