i would like to share what i am doing currently, as it may help put in perspective the relative impact of a dac change on the sonic performance of a system
listening to my modded magnepan 1.7i’s (xo and wiring mods) w rel subs pair, pass int150 (x150.5 power section with passive pre front end) ... exceptionally high resolution system in a dedicated well damped room
comparing a denafrips pontus 2 12th, venus 2, weiss dac501 4ch, AND a $400 van alstine fet valve topp dac (circa 1998, tda 1541 nos chip, dual 12ax7 tubed output, redbook only, good os tubes in it), 3 fed by parallel optical rendu’s, the older ava dac fed by spdif rca out of an ifi zen stream, which in turn is cleansed by an etherregen moat
running roon, so can set different sample rate settings at each digital leg, each leg maximized for the receiving dac, core mqa decoder activated as appropriate
the venus (3.5 grand) sounds a teeny bit silkier than the pontus (2 grand), teeny bit better bass drive, clearly more forward treble, slightly wider image but no deeper no more layered
weiss (10 grand) has equal tonality as the venus, but a deeper more layered soundstage, a little more subtle detail and treble clarity, midbass a little leaner cleaner, equal excellent deep bass drive and prat
the $400 (used) van alstine has less (and less deep) bass drive, which i can easily adjust for with subs’ setting, slightly less micro detail (due to a slightly higher noise floor) but has equal imaging width as the venus, is as layered as the weiss, but with a touch less specific outlines, and a cool, ethereal nature to voices and guitar and acoustic bass that none of the others can quite match
sooo, to me, the implied lessons learned are
1) get the front end very clean (pre streamer/renderer), i use etherregen out of a good audiophile switch, into optical rendu where possible - it lets all dacs compete on an equal footing, be at their best sonically
2) don’t estimate older dacs, they can sound excellent if they have excellent design and componentry (which need not be super expensive)
3) well done tube stage can bring something very special, not better or worse, but different from what ss output dacs sonically present typically
4) the sonic differences between dacs of vastly different costs , even on an excellent, highly resolving, well tuned system, are quite subtle -- not in the 10, or even 5% range... we are talking 1-2% differences here ... (of course functionality and construction quality are separate, distinguishing issues among dacs of different price tiers)
do dacs matter? sure they do... but among very good dacs in various price tiers, even on an excellent, highly transparent, very well optimized system, the performance differences are small indeed
sorry for a long one, but i thought this should be said here on this thread
