The sound quality from DACs - is it all the same?
I've been talking to my cousin brother about sound quality. He is a self-proclaimed expert audiophile. He says that Audio Science Review has all of the answers I will need regarding audio products.
In particular, he says an inexpensive DAC from any Chinese company will do better than the expensive stuff. He says fancy audio gear is a waste of money because the data is already bit-perfect. All DAC chips sound the same. Am I being mislead?
He also said that any DAC over $400 is a waste of money. Convincing marketing is at play here, he says.
He currently owns a Topping L30 headphone amplifier and D30 Pro DAC. He uses Sennheiser HD 569 headphones to listen to music. I'm not sure what to think of them. I will report my findings after listening one day! (likely soon, once I get some free time)
- Jack
“I’ve been talking to my cousin brother about sound quality. He is a self-proclaimed expert audiophile. He says that Audio Science Review has all of the answers I will need regarding audio products.” Is your cousin brother by any chance @djones51 😜 In any case, don’t waste your money on $400 Chinese DAC; instead buy a DSP driven powered speakers and kick back for SOTA experience! |
What is said in this video is probably relatively true...It is a question of perspective...All is not black or white here... But the audio system of Jay is at the other end of 99 % of all users here on the price scale ... For most of us ordinary mortal, like me, the most important factor is the room acoustic...Not an upgrade of my good low cost dac to a few thousand dollars new one which will be "trash" anyway compared to a 100,000 dollars one like in this video which only prove by the experience of this reviewer the impactful importance of a dac over costly speakers and very costly amplifiers in a minimally treated and non acoustically controlled room...I dont contest that...
But i would be curious to try this dac in a nude room or minimally treated one and compared it to his working in a completely controlled room... 😁😊 People forget ALWAYS the room impact, we listen the speakers/room quatitave relation AT THE END ...Even if the source is in some case the more important component...It is not true in ALL CASE at all...You cannot pair a 100,000 bucks dac with my very good speakers for sure but which are at another level of design than Jay 100,000 bucks speakers... I am sure the difference will be staggering if we use this dac in an ordinary room and compare it to a controlled one...... Then i am not convinced by Jay about his claim that DAC is the most important factor, it is not generally true for all audio system, even if i dont doubt his complete honesty and the relative truth of what he say in the context of top high end product... In the case of products generally sold for most audiophiles, on a way lower porice scale, the most important upgrade will not be a dac but a new room... Acoustic never lie and cannot be bought...it only can be painfully installed...At no cost in my case, but with great time cost for the tuning...Most people feel that they not able or not in the situation to tune a room for sure...This fact dont change the truth of what i claim about acoustic...No more than my claim could destroy the personal experience of Jay in ultra high end costly design journey...
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OP:
Nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is using 30 year old measurements which are rarely compared to listener experience as the way to gauge the performance of a system. That's not science. Science is investigation and research. This is just quality assurance techniques. The best way I can describe it is this. Yes, you can measure the firmness and rigidity of a car seat using pressure sensors. It doesn't tell you if you'll want to sit in it for 4 hours unless some one actually goes the extra step of figuring out what matters. That latter step is missing with ASR's entire raison d'etre. |
