Why are DAC's so much more expensive than transports?

Good question , prices are out of control.   Answer ?   Because they can.   

Great Question.

I recently bought a Wiim Pro for $100.  It’s intended for my basement HT system, which had been Physical Media only.  It sounds great.  I moved it to the big two channel rig and an experiment running it into same Bryston DAC as my CA CXN 100 streamer .  The difference between the two transports is quite small sonically.

  I am tempted to say that it must be relatively cheap to build a good streamer.  These are just networking computers in audio casework.  Networking Computers are incredibly ubiquitous.  There must be billions of them in use on the planet.  Presumably the essential parts must be driven to the floor price wise.  Now we all know that computers are noisy.  However eliminating some of the noise making functions of a PC, such as email and texting and all video functions, separation of some of the other functions from each other, perhaps some separate power supplies, and you end up with something that sounds a lot better than a bog standard PC.

  DACs on the other hand might be more expensive.  Audiophile grade DACs are much less ubiquitous than networking computers.  The best chips are not cheap compared to something like Dell Computers might use in a laptop.  The parts needed to synchronize the timing, so critical in music reproduction (compared to what is needed for a home printer, for example), have a cost.  Power supplies also have a cost for quality.  And then there is the issue of inputs, particularly if a DAC is accommodating some something like IS2 

If you get a full CD player or SACD player, from most manufacturers cost is same or higher for the CD player if the DAC is of equal quality. If the unit is just a transport and is only a tray with digital circuits and one transformer, it should be dramatically less expensive.

The cost in great DACs has little to do with the DAC. It is the output stage. That is what really dictates the quality of a DAC. Great units typically have a dual mono power supply for analog and digital circuits typically are handles separately by a different transformer.  Also, if a unit is fully balanced it effectively doubles the circuitry as well and this adds a lot of cost to lower the noise floor.  .

Analog is where the major deviations occur between cheap dacs and great ones. An ESS, Burr Brown, Wolfson, AKM, Analog Devices, Cirrus Logic chip will all do a competent job of the conversion. It is then the amplification of that signal in the analog output stage that dictates how the dac sounds.

Take Playback Designs. That enormous chassis was so full of stuff for the analog output stage, Andreas had to remove a transformer to make room of the CD tray and servo board for the MPS-8 SACD player and the net impact is that the MPS-8 is a small step down in performance from the MPD-8

Transports are simple to make, just requiring quality components and work. Like any technology, they are becoming commoditized. 

DACs are still evolving.  Lots of development still going on, competing technologies, advances, improvments, excitement.  This is the forumula for high demand.  High demand means higher prices.  

Add to that the smaller production lots of the high end pieces and the customized nature and you get higher prices.  

you order a lampizator (for example), they ask you what options you want, and they build it.  You order a transport and you get a mass produced component prepackaged in a retail box.

Jerry

I am going to be a bit of an outlier here and feather ruffler. I had a friend one time who was a bit on the wealthy side. He had a very good education and a very good business. He traveled extensively. He took a trip to Europe with his wife and she wanted to go to France to have some fine wine and possibly visit the Louvre Museum. So when he got back and we talked about his trip, he said he had a good time but he couldn’t agree with his wife on the excitement and great experience his wife had with the great wine and museum artwork. He told me he does not understand all the fuss about the wine and really could not get the “Mona Lisa”. He told me the painting was not impressive. In that instance I knew how undereducated and shortsighted he was with regard to art and culture. He couldn’t grasp the time, effort, talent it takes to make great wine and didn’t know much Leonardo da Vinci and his overwhelming engineering, creative and artistic talent. So what does this have to do with a DAC? Well I guess it means the companies, engineers and talent that goes into the making of a great sounding DAC would often get overlooked.

@carlsbad2 : I disagree that DAC's are evolving. DAC's have been transparent to the source for decades. They are solved engineering! The expensive prices are money grabs by the greedy. A DAC is essentially the equivalent parts-wise of a computer soundcard. Manufacturing efficiency has driven down prices for soundcards. The same can be said for all the millions of DAC's currently in use in CD/DVD players and streamers. Manufacturers that claim they have some secret circuit design that distinguishes their "audiophile" DAC's from the majority are preying upon the gullibility of the unwary. 

verdantaudio

... if a unit is fully balanced it effectively doubles the circuitry as well and this adds a lot of cost ...

That's a common misnomer. Many truly balanced circuits employ circuits such as differential amplifiers, of which operational amps are an example.

The only evolution in DACs that I see (and really interested in) are FPGA implementations. A different tube, chip, casework, etc are not that groundbreaking with DACs. 

DAC's are the component that determines the sound character. So, the amount of effort components to carefully craft the sound vs just spin a disk and stream the bits is simpler.

 

I'm beginning to realize that hi-end audio is not just about achieving some technical absolute. It's also about finding the right sound that each person enjoys.

@jasonbourne71 - I don’t have your experience in audio and hi-fi equipment. I only really started purchasing and listening to nicer equipment the last 4 years or so. But in just that short time, I’ve experienced different dacs and their unique attributes. You seem to suggest they are largely all the same, which has not been my experience. 

To understand DACS you need to.understand the basic modules that comprise a DAC, what they do, and what, if any, impact they have on sound quality. That includes power supplies for both digital and analog circuits, digital input stages including Wifi/Ethernet, the DAC proper, the reconstruction filters, and analog line stages. That's far too much to go into here, so suffice to say any bit-level digital errors are extremely rare, The real ’opportunities’ for SQ impacts lie in the reconstruction filter and analog output stages.

To understand DACS you need to.understand the basic modules that comprise a DAC, what they do, and what, if any, impact they have on sound quality. That includes power supplies for both digital and analog circuits, digital input stages including Wifi/Ethernet, the DAC proper, the reconstruction filters, and analog line stages. Thats far too much to go into here, so suffice to say any bit-level digital errors are extremely rare. The real 'opportunities' for SQ impacts lie in the reconstruction filter and analog output stages.