Easy to discriminate between DAC ??


do not have the possibility in making A/B tests so i need to plug-deplug every time.
So far tested 4 different DAc but not so easy to find the better.
The sound timbre is really very similar, what I found different is the following:
- The slightly darker/warmer is Theta Chroma
- The slightly more transparent is CEC DAC integrated in TL 51Z MKII
- The slightly more nuance devoted is Swissonic DA96
- The clearly more aggressive is Minprint DI-Port
So what??
Can it be that the oldest one of the group,Theta old fashion 16 bit still sound very modern ?
How to make a jump in quality ?
Or it will always been a question of the personal taste of sound to make the choice ??

I would love to exchange opinions about and sorry for the elaborated question
Tks.
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Showing 1 response by blueswan

Sc53 last sentence is right on target! I might add my opinion for digital listening... real live musical instruments and voices do not have edges around them. The other unrealistic digital artifacts I have noticed are an unnaturally forward soundstage and unusually fast and aggressive transients (such as snare drum hits that sound like gunshots). I also try to listen to analog versus digitally mastered CDs, there should be a clear difference.