NOS DAC or CDP?


Recently I had to get rid of two of my CDPs (Jolida JD-100 and NAD C542) for finacial reasons. In doing so, I've had to go back to using my old Onkyo DX-C540 changer. Now it's not a bad sounding player for what it is, which is a Mid-FI changer circa late 90s. But both the NAD and Jolida certainly bested it in all areas of performance, and yes, I'm missing that level of performance. In any case am thinking down the road of either getting another CDP (possibly another NAD or used Jolida) or maybe going the NOS DAC route. I'm thinking of going the NOS DAC route as the Onkyo DOES have a optical output, and I think that it might make a decent transport, and give me changer capabilities. In addition, from what I've been reading the NOS DAC would probably give me the warm, musical presentation that I enjoyed with both the NAD and Jolida players. Also it appears that many of the NOS DACs fall within the "price point" that I would like to keep (less than $500). BTW, I consider myself more a "music lover" than an "audiophile", and going the DAC route would certainly be something new for me. Anyway, appreciate thoughs and suggestions from the community on which road they might go down and why they so. Thanks.
cleaneduphippy

Showing 3 responses by shadorne

Btw, curious on the sound of the Benchmark DAC. I generally go for a warmer, more analog type of sound than an analytical one, of course I do have tubes in my system, so perhaps my worries are unfounded.

It isn't harsh in the usual digital sense - quite analog really. However, it is thin, light (in lower mids) and detailed as opposed to organic, heavy, warm or rich sounding - percussion is excellent on the DAC1. There are many reviews on line and pretty much everyone agrees on the sound. Based on your description you would probably want to couple it with tubes - if you sent that direction.
From what I have heard, OS DACs do need jitter control, because the digital filter introduces phase instabilities.

Jitter comes from the digital interface connection between transport and your DAC. It is a universal problem that affects all DAC's, DSP's etc. It is unavoidable. Some DAC's use techniques to decouple the clock signal coming across on the digital interface => this can completely remove interface jitter in a good implementation such as the DAC1. (Of course the clock in the DAC itself will have some jitter itself - there is no "perfect" clock - however this internal jitter should be orders of magnitude less than what you get from any digital interface)

Phase issues occur when using brick wall filters in non-OS DAC's. The idea of an OS type DAC is to avoid the use of steep brick wall filters and the phase errors they inherently bring into the audible range.

Some people will prefer a more jittery sound - it will give more harshness and edge to the music and can help make laid back equipment sound more dynamic, exciting and revealing. (Remember that modern CD's are mostly hyper compressed to give a harsh edgy sound and some people prefer this - jitter is similar in the way it can affect the HF)
My sound is supremely cohesive, detailed to the minutest signal, and wonderfully analog. OS DACs sound terrible, and I don't care which one. I can demonstrated the difference here, and have, numerous times.

Yes, I can see from your virtual system that you have an amazing setup. Well done!

By the way, change out those milk toast diodes out of your transport and DAC for some super Shotkeys and bring the live band in.

Interesting idea.

I can see you are dead against OS DAC's - no problem - I can understand your perspective as the early ones were indeed quite bad and probably no improvement over older DAC's (but that was before clock speeds/accuracy improved - it is always a moving target with time as to which architecture works best)