If you’re looking for coloration aka distortion then go with an R2R dac or tube dac if you want accuracy then the RME or Benchmark something along those lines.
Showing 12 responses by djones51
If you want a " warm" DAC whatever that means then the Border Patrol might fit the bill. It distorts so bad you might as well call it broken. https://www.stereophile.com/content/borderpatrol-digital-analogue-converter-se-measurements |
If you look at Amir’s graph listing all the DACs he has measured you will see that there are a lot of DACs that have similar measurements but many of them have very different prices, connectivity options and sound signatures. Success in picking one will depend on the rest of your system, your room, your music and how you (and only you) prefer your sound. DACs aren't supposed to have sound signatures if they color or distort the sound then they have become tone controls. A DAC should convert the digital to analog reproducing exactly what was sent to it. If you want to color the sound use EQ or tubes or basic tone controls. Take 2 DACs one $10,000 and one $150, if the SINAD of both are 115 and inserted into the same system I'm not going to be able to tell one from the other. |
Why not just spend $150 and be happy? I don’t know, why not? Toyota will get you the grocery at 45 mph as easy as a Lexus, why buy a Lexus? Status, bling, cause I can afford it. You still drive 45mph to the grocery. If I can’t hear a difference between a $80,000 DAC and a $2000 DAC without knowing which is which then I guess I would only buy the $80,000 dac for status, bling, because I can afford it. |
I'm not sure I said always. I have heard differences in DACs but not DACs that measure very close. IMO the DAC is the least component to concern yourself with. Get one that measures well so you get what the artist, sound engineers etc.. intended, what's on the recording. Tube amps, EQs, tone controls, Room Correction software, flavor of speaker, room acoustics and treatments, speaker position, there's enough there for me to figure out without getting a lousy measuring DAC like a Border Patrol which is the one I was talking about in the first place. I mentioned about 5 or 6 DS and R2R DACs that the OP might consider or not. |
As I stated earlier, I like Audio Note's philosophy; specs don't matter as long as it sounds good and it's faithful to the original recording.Ideally a DAC is designed to be flat across the frequency range of our hearing, so any deviations from the ideal are considered non-linearities aka distortion. If the DAC adds distortion how can it be faithful to the original recording? In vinyl this is a given there is distortion, but in digital any noise or distorion in well designed DACs have been pushed beyond human hearing. To purposely introduce distortion is not being faithful to the original recording. |
If it's a manufacturer flaw or unintentional that's different than " specs don't matter". I've never heard the DAC you're talking about. The ones I've had that measure well sound good to me. I could never tell them apart. I've had a couple that measure lousy, I didn't know at the time and they sounded OK. Was never happy with them which I guess is why I went looking for a new one. The DAC I use now I have no idea how it measures since I'm using the one in my integrated amp and I've never seen any third party measurements of it. The few specs provided by the manufacturer show it measures well enough for me. At 64 years of age that's all I can hope for and it sounds wonderful. The DAC it replaced was a Benchmark DAC3 one most consider anaylitical. Since the DAC in the amp sounds the same to me I guess it would be considered that way as well. |