I just returned a very highly regarded high-end low noise DAC. It has some of the best specs in the industry, lowest distortion, lowest jitter, super quiet dark background. It produced super clean, open, two dimensional "sound". Not "MUSIC".
While the digital designers were seeking absolute perfection, they also managed to completely eliminate the three dimensional and sweet sound of music right out of the equation. Could not wait to get back to my older distorted imperfect DAC. Once I did, real music returned.
Seems perfect digital specs on paper don’t always make for good music and maybe some of the good stuff gets filtered out of the "signal quality" to achieve sound perfection, not musicality.
While the digital designers were seeking absolute perfection, they also managed to completely eliminate the three dimensional and sweet sound of music right out of the equation. Could not wait to get back to my older distorted imperfect DAC. Once I did, real music returned.
Seems perfect digital specs on paper don’t always make for good music and maybe some of the good stuff gets filtered out of the "signal quality" to achieve sound perfection, not musicality.