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Easy to discriminate between DAC ??

do not have the possibility in making A/B tests so i need to plug-deplug every time.
So far tested 4 different DAc but not so easy to find the better.
The sound timbre is really very similar, what I found different is the following:
- The slightly darker/warmer is Theta Chroma
- The slightly more transparent is CEC DAC integrated in TL 51Z MKII
- The slightly more nuance devoted is Swissonic DA96
- The clearly more aggressive is Minprint DI-Port
So what??
Can it be that the oldest one of the group,Theta old fashion 16 bit still sound very modern ?
How to make a jump in quality ?
Or it will always been a question of the personal taste of sound to make the choice ??

I would love to exchange opinions about and sorry for the elaborated question
Tks.
ad010685
ad010685 OP
102 posts
 
Benthar I can't really isolate it more than the 1 mt cables.
The comparison is made with same cables apart when I compare the dac vs the integrated CD player (CEC) because in such a case I have one additoonal step made with a cheap SPDIF that is probably to my perceive a analog cable 75 ohm not the best for digital signal.
But i can't believe that changing it with a proper cale all the DAC's will improve dramaticaly vs the integrated Cd player. what's the rational here ?
You know i wanted to buy expensive SPDIF cable only when decided for the right one. This because some of them accept AES /EBu and the integrated CD that i could use a transport only will have a preferred digital out in AES. That will be the cable, but sometime dac like theta chroma get only the spdif, the one cheap I have today.
Tks for further comments and i will try to pute cones below. Would you go for rigif decoupling or soft decoupling ? you said cones so I guess go for rigid

At the end all of them have been tested without decoupling .
Cheers
sean
6,231 posts
 
I have been able to hear very noticeable differences in DAC's. As to which DAC works best in your system, that will vary with the rest of your components, your personal preference and the digital cable that you are using. You might find that you like / dislike specific attributes of a DAC and changing the digital cable may change all of that. At least, that has been my experience. Sean
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socrates
247 posts
 
Differences are there but are usually small. It's really one of those things where you miss what it did for you only after it is gone. Even via remote control with quick a-b versus a good internal dac may just yield small changes, but in time the small things add up. Are DACs overpriced for what they offer? Of course, but most become immune to the reaming in the hobby in time, and many get excited over thinking they just might be hearing a minute difference and instantly deam it as a huge improvement, touting it as the holy grail over the internet to affirm their obscene spendings, but such is the audiophile psyche....
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