GIven twice the number of DAC chips in the dual differential DAC then the likelihood is it will sound better because the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will be higher than with a single DAC per channel. How much better though is dependent on the implementation details.
Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC
Hi,
will a dual differential XLR DAC (with i.e. 2x Left DAC chips + 2x Right DAC chips) always sound better than a Single Ended DAC (with i.e. 1x Left DAC chip + 1x Right DAC chip) assuming that they have the same DAC chip model and same board design (except the dual circuitry of the XLR version)?
The XLR has twice the output voltage, but will pure audio quality be certainly superior to the Single Ended version?
Thanks for your opinion!
Gianluca
- ...
- 26 posts total
Basically what ^^^^ they said. I don't know if you're talking about single ended (RCA) or XLR or a dual mono dac as opposed to a shared signal path and transformer. RCA vs XLR is never certain XLR on paper should sound better but that is not always the case. Very cable dependent too. Dual mono is usually but not always superior it's always better to listen and decide for yourself. |
Thanks for your replies! @lordmelton , I'm not referring to dual mono. The Single Ended RCA DAC I'm considering is the MHDT Pagoda ( http://www.mhdtlab.com/Pagoda.htm ) and the dual differential XLR DAC is its brother MHDT Balanced Pagoda ( http://www.mhdtlab.com/Pagoda%20balanced.htm ).
The Balanced Pagoda simply has 2x PCM1704 DAC's per channel in order to obtain the negative and positive portions of the XLR signal while the unbalanced Pagoda simply has 1x PCM1704 per channel for just the positive signal.
Now that I'm playing with an open hand...do you think the Balanced Pagoda to be superior to the Pagoda? Or the dual DAC for the negative and positive portions of the XLR signal could decrease signal accuracy? I think about tolerances that make a chip never identical to another leading to a slightly "smeared" signal.
It's the old story of single ended RCA considered simpler and someway better than XLR by someone while others say exactly the opposite.
Eventually, I own an RCA Pagoda, should I take a Balanced Pagoda with no chance to test it before buying?
Thank you for your help!
Gianluca
|
@gkg2k Hi Gianluca I feel your pain not being able to demo gear, however as I see it the single ended dac is $1.5k and the balanced $2.5k. I would definitely go for the single ended and spend the extra $1k on good cables but DEMO the cables first, don't just buy them because they are expensive. Otherwise loads of Chinese R2R DACs available around $2-3k. Hope this helps. |
- 26 posts total