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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

Showing 1 response by brianlucey

brianlucey's avatar
brianlucey
58 posts
 
Someone said the Mytek is "not bad" ... if you are referring to the Manhattan, that's selling it way short.  It's a great DAC.   Same for the Bricasti M1SE.  Lesser DAs are surely coming up as the OP says but it's not my expertise.

Bottom line with playback ... is knowing the mastering source sample rate.  There is no advantage to upsamping and MQA adds distortion.  Just the 24 or yes the 16 of the real deal file is great.

Older DA needed the higher rates, great DA never have needed it.

There is no audio perfection, and that quest is costly and pointless.
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