Are those the only choices?
What about analog components?
What about analog components?
Which makes the biggest difference?
In your opinion which component make the biggest SQ difference in the chain of a digital playback system: the amplifier, the preamp or a DAC?
Or, is it impossible to determine?
Or, is it impossible to determine?
25 responses Add your response
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Well, yeah, the traditional analog electronic components truly get your system up 'n zooming. But when it comes to collecting and translating those digits into stuff the old school gear can recognize, for me the DAC brings to bear the biggest difference. Heck, my DAC even makes the YouTubes that come off my laptop sound pretty good. |
On my difficult to drive speakers the 4 amps I have had on them made a difference. It was not huge but on certain music the more powerful amps at 2 Ohms made a difference. I could also tell the sonic signature of the amps but that difference was not huge. I have had a few DACs in the house, tube, warm SS, and neutral SS, and they made a smaller difference. The tube DAC softened things up while the SS amps were much closer in sound. When I added a Convolution filter for my very revealing headphones I could not tell the difference between the 2 SS DACs. The filter worked mostly on shaping the high frequencies. I also think DACs are of very high quality these days, with most sounding very close to each other. The preamp I now use, a warm and detailed piece, made a huge difference over the very neutral preamp I way using before. Especially so in the bright headphones I use. When I switched from Ethernet to Fibre Optical streaming I had the biggest jump in performance. It was not even close in my setup. 1) Streaming 2) Preamp 3) Amp 4) DAC BTW - A preamp ALWAYS improved the sound in my setups. One of my DACs also does not have a volume control (a feature in my opinion and not a deficiency) |
+1, Fiber optical conversion in house big improvement. In fact the whole house network extremely important for streaming. I see the amplifier as separate from digital, preamp important only because it's volume control may be used in place of dac volume. Match amplifier to speaker, not to dac. I'd say preamp and dac equally important. In my order of preference: Best is dac to quality active preamp, next dac to integrated with passive volume control or stand alone passive pre, next dac straight to amp, last dac to cheaper active preamp. Colorations introduced by cheaper active preamp is least desirable. |
@artemus_5 Here is a link to how I got going with Fibre optical streaming. I ended up with 2 Sonore OpticalRendu’s. I bought the second 1 immediately after listening to the fist one. I have 2 DACs. I am also a big ROON user so ROON READY was a must for me. https://www.sonore.us/systemoptique.html I did not setup my streaming exactly as described above. I used the following network switch instead. Which has 2 Fibre slots. https://store.ui.com/collections/routing-switching/products/unifi-switch-8-150w A recent lesson I learned the hard way was not to put the ROON Server on a computer connected to the home network via a PowerLine network, put it on the regular Ethernet (in any room). With high res music I was getting drop outs which made my think my speaker drivers had gotten damaged. It was with George Harrison’s 50th ALL THINGS MUST PASS. On the song HEARR ME LORD my drivers would sound distorted during busy home internet traffic times during the passages when he is humming. It only happened on that song and was reproducible the times it happened. Luckily I figured out it was the streaming before I took more drastic measures with the drivers. |
I find that fundamental choices for amplification make the biggest differences among electronic. That choice must be compatible with the speakers that will be used, listening level that is preferred, and size of the listening space. There are substantial differences between solid state and tube amps, and even bigger differences between high powered tube amps and low powered tube amp. I happen to prefer lower powered tube amps because I like certain low powered tubes, like 2a3 and 45 triodes, and 6L6 pentode tubes. But, if higher power is a must, I would consider solid state. The choice of preamp is also critical because it has to be compatible with the amp. This can really only be known by actually trying them together. Assuming one has a reasonable set up to feed the DAC (i.e., a computer or streamer isn’t screwing things up), you can get decent sound from most DACs and the choice of DAC is usually not as critical as the choice of amp or preamp. |
rvpiano, when it comes to electronic components the amplifier choice is very important because differences in performance on any given set of loudspeakers can result in marked frequency response shifts and issues with power delivery. Given well made and designed equipment, of which there is a ton, other differences are relatively minor until you get to the world of turntables. The best insurance is to get an amp which can drive anything. |
It depends. The components that really matter are the: Streamer, DAC, Preamp and Amp. All matter. The biggest difference I have experience over the last ten years has been the streamer. I had been thinking it couldn’t matter. I was so wrong (just like every time I think something can’t matter). The reason the difference was so profound is I had very high quality, compatible CD player, DAC, preamp, and amp, and an inexpensive streamer. So introducing a compatible / synergistic streamer was profound… like a turntable it is all the way at the beginning of the signal path. If it is noisy and not high resolving, the problem doesn’t get fixed along the way. So, this is really important. On the other hand, the preamp is the heart of the system, it’s boost from line level sets the character. At the center of every great system is a really fantastic preamp. But a really good DAC is required as it crafted the digits into the sound you are going to hear. You don’t want the rest of the signal chain down. |
No clue what I had intended that sentence to say. How about: You don’t want that signal to go down to a weak amp or inferior speakers either. While I can make rationalizations for why each component matters, particularly those at the front, the reality is they all matter. If you have a weak link, improving the weak one can make a huge sonic difference. But when analyzing the problem, it is best to keep in mind the front end and preamp as having additional weight in the analysis. |
OP's questions leads us to a game of Six Degrees of Audiogon Thread Separation. Can't talk about amp impact w/o mentioning the speaker in use. Can't rank preamp above or below DAC without discussing analog vs. digital volume controls and relative quality of them for the DAC and preamp in question. Please refer to EVERY DARN THREAD EVER POSTED for the complete picture. JK. Can I add "the mastering of the recording is most important"? No? Fine. It's the DAC. Cheers, Spencer |
@ghdprentice haha - i quoted your earlier statement fully understanding what you meant to say! it is a chain, every component is a link... so the weakest link is what matters the most! that is the fun (and challenge) of this pursuit... figuring out what that is in one’s own system... and then the weak link will usually move once you make a change! **************************************************** and spencer, i agree 100% -- the original recording quality matters one heck of a lot that is one pivotal piece of ’strategic planning’ in system building, if you will -- one has to honest about the range of recordings one will use the system to listen to, and then the system needs to be built to maximize enjoyment of that range of recording qualities to be played on a regular basis |
