Six DAC Comparison


I am in the middle of comparing the sound of six different DACs in my system. I own them all (I know weird) but one of them is still within a trial/return timeframe.

Not to share specific comparisons today, but a couple of observations so far are that first, they all definitely sound different from each other. On one hand, they all sound pretty good and play what is fed to them without significant flaws but on the other hand there are definite sonic differences that make it easy to understand how a person might like the sound of some of them while not liking others.

Second, raises the observation that most of them must be doing something to shape the sound in the manner the designer intended since one of the DACs, a Benchmark DAC3 HGA, was described by John Atkinson of Stereophile as providing "state-of-the-art measured performance." In the review, JA closed the measurements section by writing, "All I can say is "Wow!" I have also owned the Tambaqui (not in my current comparison), which also measured well ("The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance." - JA). The Benchmark reminds me sonically of the Tambaqui, both of which are excellent sounding DACs.

My point is that if the Benchmark is providing "state-of-the-art measured performance," then one could reasonably presume that the other five DACs, which sound different from the Benchmark, do not share similar ’state-of-the-art" measurements and are doing something to subtly or not so subtly alter the sound. Whether a person likes what they hear is a different issue.

mitch2

Showing 4 responses by danager

Just purchased the Mojo Audio Mystique X SE  (sabs z chips) I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

@mitch2 

As the owner of a recently purchased  Mojo-Audio X SE I agree with comments regarding it's sound signature.  I don't have the Z chips or the nano-crystalline (NC) chokes but even so the sound is full and engaging.  I don't agree with difference being incremental though.  My previous DAC was the PSAudio MK1 and the MHDT Orchid before that and each provided a significant upgrade to the sound from the previous.  That said I was happy with each one of them until I heard the upgraded component.  
I wish I had your talent to express what I'm hearing but I'm pretty much tied to "Mojo good, sound like". There was so much work involved in this post I just want to say Thank You

@debjit_g 

I'm using the most current USB driver.  For Windows it doesn't show up as Mystique but works just fine.  I've also tried an older driver which sounded the same so I reverted back figuring they must have a newer version for a reason.

Not a lot of differences between USB AES and SPIDF that I can tell.  USB might be slightly darker but I feel that could be more about the different sources PC vs PI2AES than the inputs 

@debjit_g 

I'm currently using

Thesycon JLsounds_USBAudio_v5.58

 

Which Windows reports as I2SoverUSB