DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse?
Other than from a manufacturer promoting his own product you've not actually bitten an answer. W4S gear is top notch- if you like what you hear go for another one Agreed, and W4S is indeed a great value for its price range! However, I do believe that Dddrrreee can find a better performer with his $8K budget. There are some great DAC contenders in this Audiogon thread, so this might be a useful information. Best wishes, Alex Peychev APL Hi-Fi |
"Re: no pre-amp. Steve N: How do you handle volume control? Do you throw away bits to lower volume or do you attenuate the analog signal? " Neither. I adjust the D/A reference voltage. This is what is multiplied times the data words to achieve the voltage output. IT scales the volume naturally, without bit decimation or analog noise/distortion. As the volume is decreased, the S/N actually improves and the distortion drops. The opposite of what happens with analog controls and attenuators. This is the optimum way to volume. See: http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/overdrive-dac and: http://www.audiostream.com/content/empirical-audio-overdrive-se-usb-dacpre "Has anyone done an A/B of your DAC against a good pre at low listening levels?" Absolutely. I just demoed this effect at Newport show. They were amazed: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=125781.0 Steve N. Empirical Audio |
"anything 0.5V below Vcc results in rather compromised DAC chip specifications." Alex - That depends entirely on the D/A and the supporting circuitry. You are correct that most D/A chips will not do this. I don't have this problem. The A/Bs have been done with several $20K+ preamps. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Thanks Alex. I'd posted this b/c that thread muddied the waters enough I wasn't sure what to get. Ideally I was looking for anyone that heard the new W4S + DSDse upgrades and thought another DAC sounded "better". Were there any of the USB / async / XLR DACs in that thread that you particularly liked? |
