Poll: What kind of DAC do you have/want?

I agree it's flawed.

In addition, 'neutral' is a colour. Believing otherwise is typically indicative of a mild ego-centrism, born of a desire for moral or existential certainty that suggests a need to be 'right' and a fear of ambiguity. But experience tells us that the only certainty is difference, the only certainty is change.

For DACs, systems that present the most difference between all aspects of the recording provide the most insight. If a DAC sounds consistently 'neutral' it is, in fact, simply demonstrating it's 'colour'. You make like that colouration and find it to be attractive, but it doesn't make it right!

 

Wow. That's definitely too much wine ...

 

Easy man. Didn't look up your gear. The two design philosophies of dac making seem to be delta-sigma and NOS. I've heard both and greatly prefer NOS. I don't have the scratch or the itch to shuffle dacs in and out of my system. I don't have any tools to take measurements, either.

I go by ear.

 

Neutral is neutral. The above just means the term neutral has been mis-used (for far too long) by a certain type of audiophile and reviewer that equates neutral to mean cold or analytical. As you say, genuine neutral is layers of sound, correct instrument timbres and so forth, colour when it’s there in the instrument/recording etc. Trouble is, so many ‘perfectly’ measuring Dacs sound far from life-like to my ears. I think Rob Watts is onto something with his approach to Dacs (measure all but perfectly, AND have depth, layering, timbre etc), just a pity his work has been tethered to the sometimes questionable Chord industrial design ethic, and £ tag.

 

I don't need anything to tweak the sound, so a DAC with just the required DAC chip and operating functions is fine for me.

 

I can’t speak for Ro-Go, but since Topping would be virtually unknown in the US without ASR, there’s an inclination to think they may have influenced anyone who actually bought a Topping, and ASR is all about measurements, (that no one else can ever seem to duplicate to confirm) so by extension you may be one of those guys, maybe not.

not an issue really since you are looking to learn about other options. Good for you. I do think your survey is too limited. I would recommend listening to as many different DACs as you can to understand how they are different. I’d also avoid making side-grades. Jump up to the $600 and above range to get into a different class of dac.

 

I think the problem is that not many outside of the industry are technical enough to handle the testing kit. There is one channel on YouTube, that the guy running it has all the test gear on show but claimed he didn't know how to use it.

I guess some folks just don't want to know that the gear they spent $5000 on does absolutely nothing. I think that's the real reason people get upset. What they always suspect at the back of their minds is coming apparent.

Hence why I don't buy the expensive gear anymore. The gap has narrowed so much. You are paying for past legacies and glories and I care nothing for that.

 

I’m actually on to that assumption that Topping or other Chinese companies are pushed by ASR as well.

most Topping DACs which are reviewed by seasoned audiophiles get abysmal results and most of the others don’t even bother with them.
It seems as if Topping is all about making their DACs get SINAD and some other measurements great but either are omitting other important ones or downplaying them in their correlation to sound.

the Topping D90SE I auditioned was horrible.

cheers

 

I have a Topping E30 and it performs as nice as any other DAC I've heard and was only around £120.00.

 

I just went bananas and ordered a dCS Rossini after listening to a lot of great DACs. I wanted resolution and musicality and prefer neutral as possible.

 

The flip side is that measurements become a confirmation bias and comfort users who can't or don't want to buy that expensive kit. If I had a set of guidelines and dogma to which I held tightly to, and disavowed the subjectivity within the hobby, I'd cling to that life raft with all I had. Lots of other do.

I just compared last night a $299 DAC that is well-reviewed to my current DAC, a $5000 Holo May KTE.

One produced sound. The other produced goosebumps.

Measure that, I guess.

 

I have a Chord Qutest and it sounds great. Sure, a Chord DAVE or dCS Vivaldi would be nice, but they are both vastly more expensive (around $10k and $30k respectively).

 

More power to ya man!

 

Yea everyone has a threshold for diminishing returns. But to acknowledge that is also to admit there's still something to gain through an upgrade... Just not enough of one to justify the price increase.

But also, we tend to be in this hobby awhile and build incrementally so the growth over a period of time isn't as Stark to us.

But trade out one bit for another from a different product tier and suddenly it's like... Oh, damn. Ok. This stuff has come a long way.

 

Don't get me wrong. I am well aware and have experienced kit that measures like crap and yet sounds great. Ears and tastes all differ. I think the stuff that's really caught my eye is all the high end mains filtering gear that really doesn't do anything to the power going into the actual device it's meant to be improving. They don't even remove any noise or offer any more regulation over a $50 Belkin mains filter/surge protector. Mains stuff and certain other devices that fall into that "well I hope it makes a positive improvement but my ears really can't tell if I'm honest!"

 

I don't disagree. I was given (just to test out) an NCF plug/noise suppressor doohickey from a good friend, made by Furutech. He uses it and likes it in his system.

I couldn't hear a dang thing with it in, out, or otherwise.

I think a lot of those sorts of things manifest because people get bored.

 

Denafrips is made in China as well.
They are highly regarded on this forum.

 

Yeah it’s just a dumb assumption.


It’s mostly Topping, SMSL, and cheap **** like that.

Not to mention that forum is like Jonestown.
This place is far from that.

 

I just want a better sounding DAC than I have now. They are just kinda pricey. Have a Chinese made GD Audio. I like it, but haven't had very many to compare it to. I know there is better out there, just not a priority at the moment.

 

That wins post of the day.

 

Hahaha dude.
Have you read some of the threads there??
****ing nuts
I like measurements to but not like that. Geezus

if you don’t agree that an apple dongle or some cheap DAc for $10 which may measure better than a denafrips aris II sounds better , you won’t get out alive.

Lol

 

I checked out ASR forums for the first time last night. To them, there is no truth except what is measured, don't you dare describe how something sounds! Those dudes have mental problems.

 

My only DAC is inside my Oppo, and it's the only one I need.

 

I've long thought many here have too with the opposite opinion i.e. hi-fi voodoo holds true.

Some here still think you should burn a CD at x1 speed.

 

Interesting review (touches on a couple of things)