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Thinking about getting a R2R DAC

Dear community,

I currently have a chord qutest DAC. I like it a lot, very full sound, accurate detailed and exciting.  However, whenever I go back to vinyl (with a well-recorded nice pressing) I find the sound so much more satisfying.  There is a warmth, yes, but there is a presence, a 'there-ness' that I just don't get with the digital.  I'm wondering if an R2R DAC would get me closer to that?  my budget would be around the same as the qutest.  I was looking at the MHDT Orchid or the Border Patrol.  Don't get me wrong, I really like the Qutest.  I am thinking of putting it in the upstairs system to pair with the Node2i I have up there.  Any thoughts?  Will analog always just be a different animal than digital?

Currently in the main system I have a Sonore uRendu feeding the Qutest which is going to a LTA MZ2 going to a Pass XA 30.5

thanks!
adam8179

Showing 3 responses by alexberger

alexberger
938 posts
 
Other trick I did to make Chord Qutest sound warm and smooth even on "white" filter with regular power supply, I added Furutech AC GTX-D(Gold) Duplex receptacle.
This  receptacle makes sound more fat and warm in contrast to  Furutech AC GTX-D Rhodium that sounds more neutral.
alexberger
938 posts
 
The problem is a simple digital oversampling and anti-aliasing filtering (used in most DACs) is not accurate enough for music reproduction.
DAC without oversampling and Chord DACs with sophisticated oversampling and anti-aliasing filtering solve the same issue by different approach. The goal is recovery the original analog signal that was before ADC.
So one solution it do pure analog low pass filter.  Other solution is to do sophisticated digital signal processing using modern powerful FPGA and smart algorithms.
The question is what does work better?
alexberger
938 posts
 
Hi @adam8179 ,

I also use Chord Qutest for couple of years. I like it very much. It is a huge step compared to my old Care 303 CD player that use 1704 DAC chip. 
I improved the SQ of  Qutest significantly when I changed BNC digital socket to Audio Note silver RCA and started using NBS Signature cable. Thank a lot to @zipost suggested me to do it. Now CDs sound competitive to my vinyl setup. But vinyl still wons in terms of tone and microdynamics. But CD at least as good in presentation, soundstage, separation and other audiophile attributes.
Did you compared your network streamer to good CD transport with SPDIF cable?

Regards,
Alex.
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