2. tech-talk
  3. 1357261775

What made the biggest, most noticeable improvement

My musical fidelity v-dac ii broke and is being repaired under warranty but while it is away it made me think that out of all the improvements I have made to my rig since this craziness started 9 months ago, my dac made the biggest, most noticeable improvement. Every other upgrade made slight improvents here and there but my dac (with upgraded power supply, of course) gave me far better imaging, tighter more defined bass, and more micro detail. I figure the dac in my denon dvd2900 is good and that the dac in the classe ssp 25 pre-amp is good (both sound the same to me) but the musical fidelity v-dac ii with upgraded power supply just blows them away, and I figure it's out classed by many other dacs. Anyhow, besides speaker placement and speakers, what made the biggest improvement in sound quality to your rig including acoustic panels, diffusors and bass traps?
128x128b_limo
davide256's avatar
davide256
362 posts
 
and looking at your original question, for PC digital audio in order of importance

1) a separate quality DAC (no guts, no glory)($600~$1000)
2) the John Kenny MKIII smoked the VLink I had for async USB conversion... they aren't even in the same class (~$400)
3) Jplay in xstream mode brings it to life, can't listen without it (~$80)
4)Fidelizer in extremist mode adds more focus (free)
5) JRiver Media center makes it easy to use (~$60)

my disc players are all gathering dust, can't compete with PC audio and high res downloads with the setup above.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo OP
829 posts
 
Thanks for the info Davide! I liked your ice cream flavor analogy, that does make sense. I do agree that the source is of utmost importance. I will look into all the pc related stuff you mentioned once I come to that point in my system. I really want to figure out how to achieve better sound that what you can get from c.d.'s without going the vinyl route (which I will probably add at some point too :-))
mapman's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
mapman
15,679 posts
 
Each part made a big difference.

My OHM Walsh speakers are perhaps the most unique designs in my system. Nothing else sounds like them, so probably those.
More to discover