Maybe it IS all in the DAC chips
I’ve often pushed back against the idea of purchasing any piece of audio gear based on the parts contained, especially DAC’s. While the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) itself is the key component, so much goes into making a good sounding product, like stream buffers/jittter removal, power supplies and analog output stage that I thought this could lead buyers astray.
Still, having done that, and still thinking that I correctly warned others to avoid buying just on DAC brands alone, I have found myself after many years, returning again to vintage Burr Brown based DACs and home theater processors.
Color me changed with experience.
A good chip may be important, but, a good chip is not necessarily the latest thing out there. There are manufacturers that horde and use some very old chips because they believe they outperform modern chips. Audio Note uses some very old chips and quite primitive conversion and put almost all of their effort in the analogue output of their DACs. Their DACs measure poorly and sound magnificent--very smooth, rich, relaxed, and natural sounding. Naim also uses ancient chips in their premium models; I think they also achieve good sound.
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@dougholdcomp Nice, I have various DACs including my Theta DS Pro Gen V. If i remember correctly it has four Burr-Brown 20-bit PCM63 DAC chips. |
@mahler123 , have you considered the DBOB ? I want one for my Oppo 105, but it won’t work with my DAC. Mike B. |
I owned a lot of DACs in the past 10 years. Everything from DCS to my tech to blue Sound. It’s been a long expensive road. I had one made for me by SpaceX audio and it was awesome. I had that for four years and loved it. But it was time for a change I was intrigued by this new matrix audio rebranding of all their stuff. I picked up a ND – one and a TT one streamer. I first hooked it up the USB and then my buddy suggested to try the I2s Hook up. I was like how much difference can it make so I grabbed an old HDMI cable and we hooked it up it was like night and day. I still have the old HDMI cable in there while I shop for something a little better. It’s incredible the difference it makes. |
