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Just wondering...

Sorry about the poor choice for the title but I just couldn’t compress my question into only a few words. I’ve been watching A’gon to find a good deal for a decent DAC in the $1K price range to improve my CD listening experience. As I look through the listings, I see DACs priced in tens of thousands - saw a Boulder 2020 with retail price of $32K listed for $15K. Probably an awesome bargain for somebody. To some degree I can understand speakers selling for crazy prices partly justified by their sound as well as their "furniture" value. I’m also sure a $20K pair of speakers will still sound incredible ten years from now. I can even sort of get amplifiers being a little crazy in price but they seem to last forever, at least technology-wise. I’m still loving my 35 year old McIntosh amp but can’t imagine using the same DAC even three or five years from now. What am I missing? Can a $32K DAC sound that different from a $1K DAC?

128x128kalali
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
At least some people who design DACs say "No!!" - at least for a modern DAC vs. CD player

which CD player do you have?

But listen for yourself: buy from a place that allows returns and do a blind listening test

I could not tell much difference between a Cambridge Audio DacMagic (original), a Cal Audio CD Player (with PowerBoss), and an Oppo 103.  I did not have a selection of the most revealing test music set up and did not have time to do many hours of listening, but it was clear the difference was not large.
rego
378 posts
 
Hello everyone,
Being new to the Forum on Audiogon.
I can contribute a suggestion here.
Schiit Audio has been offering notable somewhat unique DACs.
I have two versions of the Gungnir.
Both sound great to me, lossless files.
The Multibit version is about $1200, new.
mb1audio02
188 posts
 
" $32K DAC sound that different from a $1K DAC?"

Yes.
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
mb1audio02,

Exactly, to the (one) word, what I intended to reply.

kalali,

Why would a DAC be any different than amps, preamps, etc.? Do you think that a DAC only has a D-to-A chip inside of it? The quality of power supply, power filtering, power regulation, etc come into play just as much as with analog components and actually even more since there are two power supply circuits to contend with, digital and analog, as well as eliminating jitter and noise from the interface with the transport/music server/etc.

Dave
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