Point of diminishing return for a DAC

Percentages require a fixed point for a calculation. None of you, and none of us, have that reference point. 

david_ten

Percentages require a fixed point for a calculation. None of you, and none of us, have that reference point.

Exactly! I could never understand claims in audio such as a 10 percent improvement, or trying to reach the last X percent.

12-31-2019 12:41pm"Percentages require a fixed point for a calculation. None of you, and none of us, have that reference point."

Maybe yes, maybe no. Like you say, nobody knows....maybe.

Then again, my take is that those who kinda know where that point may lie are super happy with their $1,00-$2,000 DACs while those who dont  are are already $8,000 deep into a DAC and wondering why they detect a touch of timbral harshness in the upper highs at the 75hz crossover point...

Maybe if you spend $1,500 more on a better power cord,  you will be happy...;-)

I'm just kidding, of course, but you get my point.
Cheers.

Thanks for all the help.  I purchased a Schitt Yggdrasil last night.  Looking forward to its’ arrival.  

Get the Mac out of the audio chain. I use a PC to control a 2TB Buffalo Box NAS drive that has all of my DSD, MP3 and FLAC files connected to a router via Ethernet. The PC is on the same network, so it controls the downloads from sites like HD Tracks and Pro Studio Masters for my downloads that go right to the NAS. I can stream right to a Sony UBP-X800M2 Blu-Ray player that handles the streaming to a Sim Audio Moon 100D DAC. Output from the DAC goes to a Yamaha A-S801 integrated amplifier which drives a pair of KEF Q500 towers. Needless to say, the sound is pristine. I just listened to Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” as 192k/24-bit FLAC and I can’t even begin to tell you how deep the soundstage and how warm the playback sounded. In essence, it’s the Moon 100D and the coax cables that make the difference. There’s nothing mechanical in the audio path so the audio chain is unhampered by the physics of moving mass.