Just Get A Better DAC?

Thanks for the advice which come from an expert..

 Welcome on audiogon in the name of all here ...

Hi,

I am an importer for audio. 

I have personally had over 60 different dacs, stopped counting. From my experience the digital cable has a huge effect and also making sure the DAC and source like the same digital connection. Some DAC manufactures like i2s so hooking the DAC to a source that is USB focused can be a mistake. 

IMHO find a great DAC and hook it to a compatible source with a great cable. I am also a huge fan of Reiki products. 

Cheers,

Robert Neill 

President 

Worldwide Wholesales 

519-619-9924 

www.worldwidewholesales.com 

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www.arya-audio.com

www.brodmann.at

I agree with convenience and “savings “ of one unit versus seperates plus interconnects. But I see adding seperates as a way to (hopefully) hear the impact of the DAC, clock, etc as added. And with evolving tech, will their be something significantly better in near future?

Having said that with so many other variables in my listening room I’m betting a good upper end DAC with all the bells will be just fine. 

@baylinor I accidentally ran in to this discussion. When I replied to you that USB is better than I2S inputs of Audio Mirror DAC I assumed you are feeding from same source through USB or I2S. In your scenario you use DDC to convert USB to I2S, but you are forgetting that DDC re-clocks the signal, while feeding directly to USB input you don't re-clock. 

OP   less boxes and cables, which is a blessing, 

Digital signal is so fragile (much more than the analog signal) that can be easily destroyed. There are 4 more additional connectors (bad metal construction) for a separate DAC alone mess up the digital signal to sound distorted. All separate DAC is like a distortion noise monster to me.

I had >15 separate DACs since PS music link II (1990) and non of them is even close to my 15 years old WT-95 (modded Oppo bdp-95). Also, there is no DAC regardless of cost sounds clean and musical like WT-95.  Alex/Wavetouch audio

Alison Krauss - It Doesn't Matter, Wavetouch audio, Live recording

When it came to upgrading the DAC/streaming side of my system, I was moving from a Roon playout chain of an Intel Mac Mini, running Roon and HQPlayer to a Gustard A26 over the network connection. That in turn had been an upgrade from lossless iTunes playout via a Pi-based streamer to an elderly Linn DAC/processor. 

I looked at (and even built) assorted streamer/DAC combinations. Streamers like the Auralic range did make a small but noticeable difference with DACs which had built-in streaming, such as the dCS Bartok and Teac UD-701N, and worked well with the Chord DAVE. 

In the end though, I found a DAC which, by virtue of the means by which it handles incoming signals, has proven robustly agnostic to how it’s fed: the Mola Mola Tambaqui. For the price, it delivered better results than any DAC/streamer combination I auditioned. What has helped was the removal of analogue noise through the optical isolation of my system from the wider LAN and of the DAC from the rest of the playout chain with an Uptone EtherRegen. I’m now just integrating Qobuz and Tidal via an M1 Mac Mini Roon server, with HQPlayer not being relevant to this setup.