Mark, this thread is about state of the art. Who are you, or anyone to tell folks how to spend their money? You have no idea what is inside top DAC's and how much they cost to produce. Please top trolling this thread as it's a long running thread and we'd been able to keep things on track for hte most part. Thanks.
Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD
Hi All.
Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.
I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.
Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?
All opinions welcome.
And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.
Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.
I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.
Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?
All opinions welcome.
And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.
Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
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- 4405 posts total
See here for a test of that Behringer DAC: http://nwavguy.blogspot.nl/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html It is in fact remarkably good, and a masive improvement on for example inbuilt laptop DACs. I do enjoy having a few for less demanding applications. It is not perfect, that is true. However, it is also not true that it should cost an arm and a leg to produce a top quality DAC. Moreover, these days standard Red Book CD resolution is no longer a challenge for any DAC chip set. See here for an example: https://www.jdslabs.com/products/39/odac-objectivedac/ Perfection has been achieved, and for a small outlay |
Glad you believe to have found "perfection" in DACs at such modest prices. Apparently there are different ways to define exactly what perfection means, unless you've compared them to the best existing DACs available at any price. If you haven't done that such declarations are essentially meaningless, and really just saying nothing more than you've found some low cost DACs which meet your standards. Others may have higher goals and more resolving systems which reveal flaws that you may be willing to live with. To each their own, that's why we have free markets! Let the competition for the ultimate DAC continue here... |
Perfection is easily defined in theory, and pretty easily in practice. It is the quality level above human hearing acuity. The good news is that with DACs that level is reached quite easily, and for fairly modest outlays. Quality wise, DACs are the most accurate part of the audio chain, so they deserve least attention. Next down the quality pecking order are amplifiers, and then, much further down, loudspeakers (and cartridges). |
- 4405 posts total