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
@muvluv "i use a pc and when the audio is mastered right the noise floor is silent on my system that is how I know." But you don't know since you haven't done any actual comparison. And, technology may be technology but the overall implementation is what matters otherwise every component would sound the same which they don't. |
@facten no not every thing sounds I same I went from the smsl su-9 to su-9pro than to an sux and from each of them my system got louder. After I used my first r2r dac which is a topping Centaurus which offered the most clarity out of them all so I do hear differences. @akg_ca most modern dacs that are built to spec have the right usb and it’s isolated from everything else so no matter what is inside the pc is basically ignored and only the music will play |
I’m open to that suggestion. I much preferred my ancient CD spinner (Meridian 500) to Lumin when I had the latter - comparing the exact same FLAC files on SSD versus burned CD. Same DAC. And the "CD quality" content I tied on Tidal sucked. Do I think the Lumin was changing bits? No way. I used to enjoy the sound I got with an iMac USB via Audiophilleo converter to spdif coax - but the software players at the time (several years ago) were absolutely awful with regards to usability and stability (tried them all). Maybe worth a shot again. But no way I’m playing music through a Windows 11 box - way too unstable. Ugh, I hate digital. |
