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You want a DAC that sounds *different.* What factor helps you find it?

I'm thinking about trying a new DAC, adding one to the stable. 

What's most important is that it sound different than my present DAC.

If you were to look for a new DAC to try, what weight would you assign to each of these factors in predicting a different character of sound? 

1. chipset
2. design of DAC --- R2R etc.
3. power supply
4. tube or no  tube
5. ? (some factor or combination not mentioned)

I've become somewhat skeptical of user reviews because of uncontrollable variability related to tastes, system components, and vagueness of language used by reviewers.

So, without some appreciation of the ability for the above factors to affect the sound character, singling out just one or another factor seems like random guessing.

I'd love to learn from you all. I'd be curious to know, for example, that most R2R DACs sound similar, overall. That would help by directing me away from trying another R2R DAC. Or maybe they don't all sound similar; ok, that keeps them in consideration.

Same question with chipsets, power supply, tube/no tube.

So, again the hypothetical -- simplified:

You want to get a DAC that sounds much different than what you have. What factor helps you find it?

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Showing 1 response by tvad

tvad
11,619 posts
 

Over the past year or so, I have either owned or had extensive in-home auditions of the following DACs:

Audio Mirror Tubadour IV SE

Audio Note 3.1x/II Balanced

Bricasti M3

Bricasti M1 SE

EMM Labs DV2

Holo Audio May KTE

Mola Mola Tambaqui

Rockna Wavedream Edition Balanced

In several instances, I had two DACs in my system simultaneously, and they were compared level-matched. They were all fed by a Rockna Wavedream NET streamer, with the Bricasti DACs additionally auditioned using their LAN inputs.

All the DACs sounded more similar than not. Yes, there were differences, but my preferences didn’t consistently align with one DAC topology over another.

My conclusion thus far is that specific DAC chip, or R2R vs. Delta Sigma doesn’t matter as much as one might believe. At least to my ears.

What matters is the DAC builder’s circuit design and implementation...and how the DAC sounds to you.

The answer to this question:

You want to get a DAC that sounds much different than what you have. What factor helps you find it?

Reading and interpreting reviews/user comments, and then listening in my system. However, the bottom line from my experience is that I have yet to find a DAC that sounds much different from what I own.

 

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