Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC
Hi,
will a dual differential XLR DAC (with i.e. 2x Left DAC chips + 2x Right DAC chips) always sound better than a Single Ended DAC (with i.e. 1x Left DAC chip + 1x Right DAC chip) assuming that they have the same DAC chip model and same board design (except the dual circuitry of the XLR version)?
The XLR has twice the output voltage, but will pure audio quality be certainly superior to the Single Ended version?
Thanks for your opinion!
Gianluca
BINGO!!! In his world, measurements trump listening. He can’t trust his own ears and let’s measurements dictate what must sound good. Measurements are important, but they’re not everything. |
Because measurements cannot be refuted. Because it pokes holes in audiophile claims. Because how does one reconcile their claim to be able to tell the difference between cables and fuses, but you are happy with a DAC that has barely 8-12 bits of performance. Worse, how does one reconcile claims of superior hearing or listening experience, when unaware of very significant artifacts? One could almost make the leap that electronics really do barely matter, and the speakers really are king, by far. I would have thought the logical first thought would be, maybe it is broken, but I don’t see this in the thread, just defending the truly abysmal performance. Perhaps it is broken or perhaps it is a really bad design. Taking a look at the pictures, there are some things that on first glance concern me, so I tend to the latter, a really bad design. It does give credence to the fact, one that many audiophiles object to, that loud sounds mask quieter sounds and hence claims of being able to hear low level details during louder passages is suspect. I would be a little disappointed if I paid for an 8 cylinder with a supercharger and ended up with a 4 cylinder with bad compression on 2 cylinders, but never realized it as I never take it out of the neighborhood.
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For me it’s the off balance approach. I much prefer a review process which includes measurements and listening. Stereophile’s review of the Border Patrol DAC comes to mind: https://www.stereophile.com/content/borderpatrol-digital-analogue-converter-se It seems Amir’s/ASR’s take-down attitude has become sport. I just don’t understand why. What’s the point of the vitriol regularly spewed over there? We’re all aware a bad review can hurt a small manufacturer in a very big way. Is the goal to put them out of business? I can’t imagine doing this to anyone. If a product peaks my interest, I want to hear it for myself regardless of measurements. If I don’t like it I send it back. I don’t have a problem saying something wasn’t for me but I’m certainly not going to talk trash all over the internet. But what do I know? I’m just a delusional old fool. |
@gkg2k .. apologies for veering off course. If you decide to take a chance on the balanced version I hope you'll share your impressions (warts and all). |
A couple of years ago there was a long and heated discussion in DIYaudio about this topic (maybe it's still going on). Generally speaking higher SNR means in the digital domain more bits which would translate into more resolution. The position from the developer (Soekris) was that the Soekris DAC would deliver 26bits of resolution (calculating it from the number of used resistors per channel in the R2R) while the other party insisted that the SNR numbers simply wouldn't verify this claim. So whatever is true we can say at least that XLR has higher SNR compared to SE DAC. My personal experience is that it also depends a lot on how one connects the DAC to the rest of the system and what source files (bit depth) are being used. Especially considering digital vs. analog volume control or a mix of both (like what I am doing). Because if one uses a 16bit signal and digital volume control one will listen in the end to maybe 12bits of resolution only. Can still sound satisfying with the rest of the system and room acoustics and one wouldn't even notice. With 24 bit signal depth and a 26 bit DAC (like the Soekris claims) it works as long as the input sensitivity of the power amp and the sensitivity of the speakers are in range with the necessary digital volume settings for comfortable listening. A combination of digital and analog volume control make it easier to fine tune without losing resolution and allows better adjustment to the rest of the system in my experience. The biggest flaw of analog volume control is that it takes some part of the signal and connects it to ground (voltage divider principle) and a lot of transients and subtle elements of the signal get lost first. The lower the settings the more is dumped to ground. A combo of digital and analog allows the best compromise between bit depth and transients. It's clearly audible, at least in my system.
So XLR or SE considering SNR, bit depth, and volume control is the chain that would need to be looked at in order to find the correct answer.
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