Can a off the shelf DAC, if engineered/implemented good, sound as good as a custom DAC?
I heard 2 conflicting rules for DAC chips:
1) It's not so much about the DAC chip, but how well it is implemented
2) Custom DAC chips will beat off the shelf DAC (ie ESS) chips anyday
So my question is... if for instance, the all in one DAC streamer Sim Audio Moon 891 which uses a ESS DAC chip... can it sound as good a Grimm Audio MU2, Lumin X2, or M3I which all have custom in house dacs?
There is NO generalization as it depends on each implementation. A custom DAC can sound good or bad. Also, manufacturers may use the same chip which usually has a general sonic character, but their implementation and thus Sonics will be different. |
The new Schiit Singular (Byggy) DAC is a custom implementation of delta -sigma designs. I owned it and it was the best Schiit DAC I have heard. I owned a few including LIM, MIB, OG. I no longer have these DACs.
My current DAC (and last) is less than 10lbs and uses a 2lbs external switching power supply (like a laptops). I may eventually try a battery power supply with this DAC. |
There is so much more involved in designing and building a good sounding DAC, than the D/A conversion chips used. My Mearson DAC1 MkII sounds great with its dual Burr Brown PCM1794A hybrid chips. My Aries Cerat Helene sounds even better with its 8 Analog Devices AD1865N-K stereo ladder R2R DAC chips, or 8 D/A converters per channel. However, with each of those DACs there is so much more, such as:
Other considerations include how the DAC plays with your other equipment considering things like which input is optimal, whether it is optimized for a balanced or single-ended output, the output impedance, the output voltage, and more. There are so many variables with both the DAC and with the rest of your system, that you simply need to try the different DACs you are interested in at your place and in your system. |
@ted_b Great analogy! |
I agree with everything that has been said. There are two issues beyond the competence of the dac that will impact whether you think it sounds "good." First, it has to match well with the rest of your system. If, for example, the dac overdrives or underdrives your preamp, that will be a problem even though the dac functions exactly as designed. Second and most obvious, it must produce a sound that suits your subjective tastes. While I think the differences in dacs tend to be subtle, those differences are real. A dac might be brilliantly designed and well built, but produce a sound that you find too bright, or too veiled-nothing wrong with the dac, but you won't think it sounds "good." |
