DACs and reproduced sound

It's a panglossian notion that the failings of one area of a system can be ameliorated by the failings in another. Not IME.

Agreed. My point was that worrying about the performance benefit of an incremental reduction of 0.0001% distortion seems like worrying about a pimple on a cows butt when you are drinking the milk. Considering that speakers already add far far more distortion why worry.

My idea with pangloss was to question the thought that a "perfect DAC" would be too revealing of the underlying flaws of CD format. IME the idea that there are ruthlessly revealing components is generally misconceived. Any such observation about a component more likely reveals a problem in the component than it does flaws inherent in RBCD.

Also, measured distortion is only one among many criteria that determine sonics, whether in loudspeakers or in CDPs.

As the price of good digital gear has come down, some opinions are returning to the early days of RBCD, in which conventional wisdom was that there were few if any audible differences between CDPs. I agree that there have been improvements, but there is still a fairly wide gap between budget and upmarket CDPs. At local audio club meetings it never ceases to surprise me how much effort is put into systems building in all areas except for the digital source. You can hear the difference.

Also, measured distortion is only one among many criteria that determine sonics, whether in loudspeakers or in CDPs

Agreed good point - like phase for example - you can get a big difference in soundstage/imaging even though timbre may be the same and distortion negligible.

if all components are imperfect, they exhibit coloration.

the fact that coloration is unintentional and a consequence of many factors implies that configuring a stereo system is essentially creating a balance among colorations.

Dear Dgarretson,
I wasn't claiming that a "perfect DAC" would be too revealing of the underlying flaws of the CD Format. Every Recording, Analog-Digital Conversion, and Playback peice of Equipment damages the original to varying degrees. They all still damage the original never the less. There are going to be some that greatly damage the original signal magnitudes greater than others. There are huge Sound differences between DACs; however, there is even a greater disparity in Sound Quality from one CD to another, that is clearly discernable even with the worse DAC. The only explanation for this huge disparity, is that the Analog/Digital Conversion does most of the damage to the Harmonic Content of the Recording. Magnifying this damage by increasing the accuracy of the DAC ten fold, might ameliorate some of the damage that the DAC causes, but won't even put a dent in the damage that the original Analog/Digital Conversion has caused. Such Damage is so severe, that the only solution might be to err in the opposite direction in the Analog Output Stage. Certainly, this means modifying the original, and not being ever more faithful to the accuracy of the severly damaged original signal. Being ever more faithful to the original signal, could even end up distorting the Music even more severe, by compounding the damage that was done during the Analog/Digital Recording Process. It may sound counter intuitive, but I believe that there is more going on in our Analog Output Stages, than just being faithful to the original signal.