Why double down on DACs?

In most systems, DACs affect the sound about as much as cables. Save your money for better speakers or amplification.

 

In my experience the DAC in the chain is a very significant and impacting piece. Far, far more variance in sound quality to be found by upgrading DAC's than cables if you ask me.

 

To each their own, but I wouldn't buy a DAC to use with a brand new CD player unless I was spending a LOT more on the DAC and intended to only use the CD player as a transport.

I have an inexpensive DAC and an inexpensive CD player. The CD player gets used with its internal DAC to play CDS. When I want to play files I use the external DAC. I have a digital coax cable hooked up to the CD player so I can use the external DAC if I want to but I rarely use it that way.

 

You don't understand how DACs work if you believe that the off-the-shelf chip is anywhere close to the end of the story.

Further, what do you say about DACs which don't use chips?

 

My 25-year old Denon DCD-1015 and Oppo bdp-93 are hooked up to my Yamaha AVR by both analog and digital connects. I can hear a difference in all three DACs. The AVR DAC has a more receded center image (wider soundstage?) with the Denon having the most rock solid center imaging. It is more forward and highlights the vocals more but the soundstage is more flat, with the Oppo sounding more like the Denon. I don't know which sound is more "accurate", but I like the DAC in the Denon more for most music. For me, being able to choose which DAC to use is a great option. I will one day get an external DAC to see what difference it makes. If it brings the best of both DAC worlds and provides the great center image with a great soundstage, I will keep it. If it sounds too similar to what I already have, I will send it back. Being able to hook up the players using both methods is a fantastic option for me, and I recommend it.

 

Here we go...

 

Sure.

What stinks is that there are sincere forum members who'd like to have their curiosity stimulated. Share. Discover. Learn. Is that really so bad?

The D/A Conversion chip is merely one tiny part of an entire design. Sure, run-of-the-mill D/A conversion is ubiquitous. A typical enthusiast home stereo demands a specialty product which can run in price from a few hundred dollars to a few tens of thousands. The chip(s) doesn't much matter for PCM conversion if the oversampling stinks, for just one small example. So never mind the power supply design throughout or the analog section or the data clock. Or even how the the chip is being used. It's a tiny part of a complex design.

I wonder what the chances are that you'll reconsider?

 

Certainly that is true, and certainly excellent (as well as mediocre) results can be gotten from many different DAC chips. It's the whole product that makes the difference, just as the type of tubes or transistors is only a small part of a preamp, and the entire design (how those tubes or transistors are used) is far more important in getting great (or not so great) sound.