Can't wait for Matt to get back from his vacation and get back to auditioning, lol. Once I'm out of the hospital and get a couple more weeks or rest, I'll be heading down to his place (if my ride comes through, lol). I can't wait to hear his system and what he thinks of the Shun Mook Footers he finally got in before he left.
Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD
Hi All.
Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.
I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.
Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?
All opinions welcome.
And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.
Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.
I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.
Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?
All opinions welcome.
And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.
Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
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- 4487 posts total
That fine for you, but sorry it's what I've heard with many A/B's in my own system and with others. To me PCM done with DS is akin to amplification being done with Class-D I'm with fuzzbutt17 (Benjamin from Mojo Audio) and yet to hear different, to me the best pcm conversion is not done with DS. You have to ask yourself why are there so are many (expensive) discrete and "chip versions (egSchiit)" R2R lader dac's now being made that are made in Europe, GB, China, US ect, just to do PCM with, and not even able to do DSD, crazy marketing if it had nothing to better to give. Why go to that bother and expense with a "so called" dying Redbook format. When these guys can get say the top line ESS Sabre dac chip for a fraction of the price, with digital domain volume control and all sorts of other goodies, and be able to do DSD. Cheers George |
@audioengr +1 Yes it is the filtering that creates the dead effect. Still one of the most problematic issues with any DAC. Marantz house sound is dark and dead. I have heard plenty of great sounding SACD but Marantz is not to my taste. @georgehifi DS or R-2R can both sound fantastic if done well. DS currently has the edge in performance especially the hybrid designs that have 6 bits in depth. Old DS with only one bit depth suffered from high amounts of noise but was besutifully linear. R-2R has much less noise but suffers from linearity issues. The hybrid designs that are in the all the modern ESS chips are a great blend of the positives from both - they are highly linear and low noise too. Modern DS chips are basically akin to a 6 bit R-2R - they function just like R-2R with their output level a function of the number of selected individual DS that are summed up to make up the output - exactly like a ladder DAC. Noise is what drives the need for heavy filtering.... |
Thanks Shadorne, but George will now come back and tell you that you are incorrect. Honestly he lost me again when he said something about Schitt beimg an expensive discrete.....:::: they aren’t in this conversation if too DAC for anything. Nice in their price range but many of us like others in the just over 2k. That’s another topic though. He forgets about implementation being much more important since the new ESS chips are so good. Both can sound great. None of of us have ever said the old tech can’t sound good when it’s done right. Great designers stay open minded. Look at Steve and others who can and will use any tech if they feel it can be done right. Others who aren’t open minded can’t be taken seriously. That’s the reality. |
- 4487 posts total