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Six DAC Comparison

I am in the middle of comparing the sound of six different DACs in my system. I own them all (I know weird) but one of them is still within a trial/return timeframe.

Not to share specific comparisons today, but a couple of observations so far are that first, they all definitely sound different from each other. On one hand, they all sound pretty good and play what is fed to them without significant flaws but on the other hand there are definite sonic differences that make it easy to understand how a person might like the sound of some of them while not liking others.

Second, raises the observation that most of them must be doing something to shape the sound in the manner the designer intended since one of the DACs, a Benchmark DAC3 HGA, was described by John Atkinson of Stereophile as providing "state-of-the-art measured performance." In the review, JA closed the measurements section by writing, "All I can say is "Wow!" I have also owned the Tambaqui (not in my current comparison), which also measured well ("The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance." - JA). The Benchmark reminds me sonically of the Tambaqui, both of which are excellent sounding DACs.

My point is that if the Benchmark is providing "state-of-the-art measured performance," then one could reasonably presume that the other five DACs, which sound different from the Benchmark, do not share similar ’state-of-the-art" measurements and are doing something to subtly or not so subtly alter the sound. Whether a person likes what they hear is a different issue.

mitch2
mitch2 OP
4,738 posts
 

Hey all, if it wasn’t clear, I believe what Benjamin meant was:

"Whatever differences mitch2 is hearing will be significantly more less than what is heard when compared to most of our X DACs that have the more common AD1862N-J DAC chips."

IOW, while Benjamin and other listeners believe the Mystique Z sounds better than the Mystique X line, the differences are likely to be less between my X SE NCZ and the Z, because of the premium AD1862N-Z DAC chip upgrade that I have in my X SE DAC. The sonic performance delta between the Z and the majority of Mojo Audio's X line-up of DACs (that do not have the premium Z chips) is likely to be greater than what I am hearing.

BTW, I had to take a short hiatus from listening this week and will get back to listening to the Mystique Z this weekend.  Based on my listening so far, I am confident of what I am hearing from the Mystique Z but I want to spend more time directly comparing it to my Mystique X SE NCZ.  After that, I plan to compare to the sound of my Aries Cerat Helene DAC but that will be more easily done through my new SMc Audio VRE-1C preamp that just shipped out today, since that preamp has a phase switch so I won’t need to flip-flop speaker cables to account for how the AC Helene inverts polarity.

mfisher702
49 posts
 

“Sonic Delta”. Good band name. 

markmuse
335 posts
 

Deviating from sonic?

Post removed 
no_regrets
573 posts
 

@fuzzbutt17 

I appreciate the heads up!  


I won’t be able to make it to the Capital Show, but I have room and tickets purchased for the entire AXPONA SHOW in April. 

I’m looking forward to meeting you then and hearing your new dac!

Do you know what the rest of your system will be in your room yet???

Best wishes,

Don
 

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