Toggling between DACs is my way of testing DACs. I did this with the Benchmark LA4 preamp, and I used ROON to send a GROUPED stream to both of my fibre optic Sonore OpticalRendu’s. Each Rendu is then connected by USB into a DAC. The DACs go into the LA4 preamp via XLR. I actually had 3 OpticalRendu’s at one time but only tested 2 DACs at time since the LA4 preamp only has 2 XLR’s (and 2 RCA’s).
You can easily switch between the 2 XLR sources and hear in perfect synchronization with the music on each DAC. Now the GROUPED stream maybe slightly less audiophile than single stream. Don’t quote me on that, I needed to test that some more. However, in context of comparing it did not matter since both DACs were getting the identical stream.
My tests with a lot of DACs led me to believe most DACs $15k and under were not that substantify different, more evolutionary improvements. The best DAC was the Schiit Yggi+ OG (at under $3k).
Now I sold all my DACs and preamps and have bought what I think is a revolutionary DAC. It is the Imersiv D-1 and I hear a massive difference in sound from all the other DACs I have heard. The design of this DAC is different for all other DACs and the measurements on this DAC are significantly better than the former best measured DACs. Normally to my ears measurements do not equate great sound but in this case, you cannot ignore the substantial difference between the D-1 and the second-best measuring DAC.
When I got the D-1 I first tried it via the Benchmark HPA4 preamp (same as the LA4). To my surprise I found the HPA4 was limiting the potential of the D-1. That never happened before with DACs always better with the LA4 or HPA4 preamps.
