I used a DAC made in the 1990's retail $1000. Bought it for $250 and used it for YEARS. My used DAC was jut as good as the latest 2010 raved in TAS and Stereophile. So I returned that $2300. DAC and kept using my $250 prize.Only when I heard the Marantz SA-10 playing CDs from a changer via Toslink did I switch, The SA-10 costs $7000 and is worth it to me. I use it as a DAC playing all my CDs. The SA-10 uses new DSD works or all decoding. Works on CD to be better too.
Some ways to improve your old DAC: stuff it with black antistatic foam (in baggies, with grounding the foam to the chassis) or boost the AC frequency into the unit. (Both those tweaks from Stereophile writers years ago) Or use those alternate waveforms from PS Audio regenerators to improve the AC into the DAC.So I would say there are ways to improve the output from a DAC. When Marantz and others bring the sort of DSD processing to a cheaper level of players.. Or someone figures out how to do it even better...
Some ways to improve your old DAC: stuff it with black antistatic foam (in baggies, with grounding the foam to the chassis) or boost the AC frequency into the unit. (Both those tweaks from Stereophile writers years ago) Or use those alternate waveforms from PS Audio regenerators to improve the AC into the DAC.So I would say there are ways to improve the output from a DAC. When Marantz and others bring the sort of DSD processing to a cheaper level of players.. Or someone figures out how to do it even better...