Well, there are so many factors that affect the sound of a DAC beside the dac chips, such as the jitter reduction circuit, clock, power supply, and output stage. Even if there has been tremendous progress in Digital to Analog Conversion over the last 5 years, I think well designed no cost object older DACs can outperform newer ones that are cutting corners with less expensive parts in the power supply, OP amps etc. However, I don't think there much comparison between older and newer dacs cut from the same cloth of cost/budget restraints; Benchmarc Dac1 or Bel Canto Dac II of today have no competition from the past generation of the $1000 price tag.
old vs new DAC designs and sound differences
Hello fellow Audiogoners, there are alot of DACs around. After having listened to various DACs, I come to the conclusion that differences between DACs are not dramatic. Some relatively old DACs, like the Accuphase DC-91 or the Wadia 9 can still compete with the best of the current DACs. So age (with regard to design) doesn't matter much (1). There is actually no real difference between non-oversampling, filterless designs and the over and upsampling designs with the most difficult and sophisticated algorithms (2). A good sounding DAC, whether it is old, new, non oversampling or over and upsampling remains a good sounding DAC. Differences between loudspeakers are much bigger. Even differences between power amps are more significant than between two well designed DACs (3). So there is no reason at all to replace your albeit old but still good sounding DAC. I know I'll keep my oldskool Accuphase.
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- 12 posts total
- 12 posts total