Reconfirming the known: DAC hierarchy
I have used separate DACs since the late 1980’s. I have had many and understand the hierarchy well. But recently just had a reconfirmation. As always hearing the differences is always more striking than just thinking about them.
About five years ago I was helping introduce a friend to the high end and ultimately build a system. He wanted to start inexpensively so I suggested a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and since I needed to upgrade my office system I bought a Schiit Gundgnir multibit ($1.3K) for him to check out and he ultimately bought the Yggdrasil (A2) $2.5K. Not long after he bought ARC equipment with a Linn front end with Majik DAC... a very notable upgrade... then a couple years later upgraded the DAC to Exakt... for a surprising improvement... he was shocked. He experienced the multiple surprising improvements Gundgnir --> Yggdrasil--> Majik --> Exakt.
My office system was pleasing until a month ago or so my Gundgnir bit the dust. I asked to borrow his unused Yggdrasil. I was shocked (this is what keeps you in this pursuit for a lifetime) how much better the Yggy sounded... I knew it should and I could describe the difference before putting it in... but when I did I am always surprised at how obvious and substantial it is. My friend was kind enough to sell me the Yggy so I didn’t have to buy a new one.
I had lazily used my M4 Mac Studio as a streaming source when I had gotten rid of the last of my Microsoft / Intel stuff ( big tower for the desktop computing). So since I had to pull out the audio rack I decided to use the Bluesound stream I had gotten for breaking in cables and stuff. Wow, a big improvement... I mean, I knew it was coming... but it's alway surprising when you hear it an it sure was a reconfirmation of how a really low level budget streamer is better than a PC. Which I have proven to my self many times... but that still, when I hear it is just really obvious
Yes, breaking in five years was disappointing. But I was not shocked. It is a budget oriented company. I am sure most do not break in five years... so it was the luck of the draw. Alternatively. I have never had a high end component break... except for CD transport back in the 90s' and it was repaired free three times. |
@muvluv "...Umm any high pc will beat the crap out of the most expensive streamer." I appreciate your faith in engineering principles... but while your statement could be true in an individual instance. It is categorically wrong as a generalization. I and probably hundreds of audiophile here can attest to the opposite. I was in IT for most of my career and tested PCs, different software, power filtering of PC, shutting down of processes, MACs... MACs on batteries. But without the hardware around the CPU to reduce electrical noise and vibration (a streamer) then a general purpose PC no mater how configured is not going to sound better than a high quality purpose built streamer. In the real world this is true... I have evaluated over well over twenty streamers of different quality tiers. Which is why my primary streamers in my two primary systems are Aurender steamers. |
@macg19 thank you and new technology coming out soon hence for the construction of new chips plants for modern ones cannot make the new tech. The prices should be much lower considering the material is widely abundant. @ghdprentice most modern dacs the usb input is isolated so good that no noise is heard. The i2s input from the gustard u-18 I am going to buy a separate clock when it’s available to see if that will improve the sound because from the i2s to the usb input nearly sound identical to one another. |
5 years ago it was $1300 or so, I think. You sound comfortable just shrugging it off but that’s pretty expensive for a lot of people. I imagine they’d expect more from a product. It’s not a $80 DAC from Amazon, after all. Pretty shocking. |
