High resolution digital is dead. The best DAC's killed it.


Something that came as a surprise to me is how good DAC's have gotten over the past 5-10 years.

Before then, there was a consistent, marked improvement going from Redbook (44.1/16) to 96/24 or higher.

The modern DAC, the best of them, no longer do this. The Redbook playback is so good high resolution is almost not needed. Anyone else notice this?
erik_squires
Post removed 
The Sigma Delta architecture has to my ears a sound that gives digital a bad reputation. 


Just bad implementations.  If you do the digital filtering right, it can easily beat all the old chips, including 1541/1702/1704.  I designed DACs with the 1704 as well.  Musical, but not live like my Sigma Delta DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
I also use a SOtM USB regenerator, but with my own power supply.  Makes ALL the difference with USB:

https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1 

Inserts in-line with the USB cable.  Simple.  Need 2 cables, each 1-2m long.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
I designed DACs with the 1704 as well. Musical, but not live like my Sigma Delta DAC.

Sorry don’t know about yours, but totally the opposite for me, no Delta Sigma I’ve heard can match it with those three R2R Multibit dac chips you mentioned or others when implemented well, for "prat", "boggie factor" and "dynamic slam" when converting PCM redbook.

If anything the good Delta Sigma’s are too sweet and limp, not exciting, without any "live" feel to them when doing PCM Redbook, but they can do DSD SACD if your into that stuff.

Cheers George