For those that have heard Dutch & Dutch 8c..

Hi! 

@willywonka @spenav , you're both talking about your dac's performance relative to be 8c. I'll do my best here.

Since we're discussing dacs, the assumption is that you've already converted the file to analog, and that's what you'd be sending to the 8c (or any other preamp, amp, etc,.). The same is no less true with the 8c. 

Where we differ. Unlike traditional speakers where a passive crossover is introduced after the amplifier stage, our crossovers are placed  in front of the amplifier. 

We receive the full range digital or analog signal, then split it into low, mid, high, then send each signal to a dedicated dac and amplifier, each amplifier feeds it's respective speakers directly. By taking an active approach, we gain enormous efficiency, can customize each filter for every driver, and significantly reduce distortion.

To summarize, you can send your raw digital files or analog signal into the 8c, but it will ultimately go through our DSP and Dacs before our room correction.

At the end of the day, we believe that good acoustic design and integration will provide the best sound, not necessarily "bit depth" races.

Thanks. I got it. Would it be then fair to say that if I get the 8C, I can get rid of my DAC without suffering any lost in performance. Thanks again for the quick and thorough response. 

@willywonka 

Seems that the DSP process happens at a later stage, so it won’t be disabled. Whether analog or digital, the signal is treated the same way. Both are manipulated in the digital domain. The analog signal is converted back to digital before processing and back again to analog. So unless you’re using a DAC/streamer, you can skip your DAC. 

@spenav I can't speak directly to your particular dac or whether or not you would detect a change.

I've been using the 8c with a variety of dacs and direct digital inputs over the years.

I use a Bacch-SP as my primary front end and it has very high quality dacs. I've used this source to feed both an analog or digital signal straight to the 8c and I have a very difficult time hearing any difference, but I think that this says more about the A to D conversion, given that the 8c D to A is the common denominator regardless of input.

With that said, I've also run the Bacch straight into SET tubes feeding 115db horns which tend to reveal everything, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything when I go into the 8c.

Lastly, the 8c can stream Tidal or Qobuz over Roon or Spotify natively over ethernet. This allows for a lot of clutter removal.

I hope this helps.

I am seriously looking at the 8C but I probably will keep my LUMIN X1 until at least I can be sure the 8C alone can handle everything flawlessly. Thanks.