2. digital
  3. 147809-129247

Is my DAC my weakest link?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this sort of thing. I recently bought the following system used:

Thiel CS2
Rotel RC-1070
Audionics BK-ST 140 (BT-2)
NAD 5000
Music Player II DAC

It sounds great and I am very happy with it. I am wondering, though, whether the Music Player II might be outdated. I know everything is old (hopefully some of it in a classic sense), but I have been wondering whether more recent technology might have greatly improved DACs. Would it be worth it to invest in a more recent DAC, and if so, what price point would be roughly commensurate with the system? (i.e. no need to improve the DAC beyond the capability of everything else).

I stream Tidal HiFi through Audirvarna Plus to the DAC.

Thank you for your insights!
ryunosuke13
ryunosuke13 OP
10 posts
 
Chord Mojo looks awesome but looks like it doesn't support MQA.

Would the Pro-Ject Pre-Box S2 take input from a CD player? Looks like it has optical and USB in, plus a single coaxial input.
mesch
3,411 posts
 
If CD player has optical or coax SPDIF output then you would be good to go using the Pre-box as DAC and preamp.
w1000i's avatar
w1000i
70 posts
 
The DAC is the most important part as it will convert the lossy digital data to analog. Jump to chord dac and you will see
twoch
429 posts
 
 Eddie,   Buy a real nice power cord for the DAC  be done with it.   also same for the server  
zug
41 posts
 
Up to a point I agree with reubent but... big but. With digital stuff it is different. Digital is a whole different ball game. Since the human ear is extraordinarily sensitive to anything that sounds un-musical, it can react to seemingly very minor shortcomings which sort of bug you until you either just throw your whole digital rig in the trash and go back to analog, or upgrade. 
More to discover