shadorne
Responses from shadorne
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @mahgister Absolutely agree about human hearing complexity. I am utterly convinced we hear sound as a complex interpreted amalgam of the different responses at both our ears analyzed over a short period of time. This is called the Haas effect - ... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @jrareform I stream Tidal as well as 6 Terabytes of personal CD collection using Roon. Roon can convert to DSD64 I highly recommend investigating on the fly upsampling to DSD on a PC and feeding that to a good DAC with true one bit conversion ... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @jrareform I suggest to look into Audalytic (Gustard) AH90. There is a firmware update to allow it to run DSD Direct. Anecdotal reports are that there are excellent results obtainable if you feed this DSD256 (needs high precision upsampling of s... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @cundare2 All I am saying is that most analyzers tend to look at frequency response and do a lot of averaging to get precision. There are some capabilities to plot time domain signals like square wave or impulse response but largely the focu... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @cundare2 Holo May KTE measures superbly https://www.stereophile.com/content/holoaudio-may-level-3-da-processor-measurements But then again, almost every DAC does because every designer or chip designer uses Precision Analyzers. Listeners seem... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @cundare2 T+A, one of Europe’s ’s most highly regarded manufacturers of high-end DACs (well-known on the continent and now starting to establish a rep in the US) sells sophisticated $5-9000 dual-path DACs that process PCM with Delta-Sigma ci... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @dsnyder0cnn Unfortunately, the ESS chips all have pass-band equiripple just like other DS upsampling chips. This results in echoes (exact copy of entire audio at lower level just like a reflection) Ringing is not the same as echo. Ringing ... | |
| Best DAC you ever heard list. 1.Budget under 1k 2. Mid Under 5k 3. Cost no Object. jrareform 45 posts 04-27-2025 at 06:10pm Under 1k- used RME Under 5k- Gustard r26 or RME Over 5k - T&A D200 I have experience with maybe 30 DACs in my systems at various times so not a ton but enough to have an opinion. That T&... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @macg19 The Burr Brown chip is my preferred Delta Sigma chip - smooth and detailed. That said it still doesn’t image quite as well as a NOS DAC. | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @kofibaffour Totally agree $3000 is arbitrary. What I really mean is to draw a line between chip-based DS DACs (typically under $3K and as cheap at $50) and that of R2R ladder, ring and other discrete designs (anything typically $3K and up) | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @ghdprentice Yes - exactly what you said 100%. ‘Tend not to sound as natural” - exactly what I meant @jrareform Absolutely agree the T+A D200 is outstanding, especially when fed DSD256. However it’s like $5K so although $3000 is my arbitra... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @hilde45 True - it’s a generalization but it is also true that upsampling Delta Sigma DACs totally dominate under $3000. The mathematical link is a fact. The audibility is indeed system dependent and probably listener dependent. That said - the... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical @mahler123 Indeed there are differences due to the upsampling filters used and other designer tweaks - that said there is usually no way around the upsampling function built into these Delta Sigma chip DACs where EVERYTHING ultimately ends up co... | |
| Why most $3000 and lower DAC’s sound almost identical Isn’t eliminating the “pre echo” exactly what Meridian’s apodising filters (circa 2008) were designed to eliminate? Not mitigate, eliminate - at the expense of higher artifacts on the post side. I also thought that has been largely replicated ... | |
| The Great DAC Mystery @knownothing I have no experience with Chord or JRiver. I don’t doubt your observations are correct - they seem to match what is observed by many others. Chord M-scaler is clearly a design intended to improve upsampling filters over the conventi... |