Have DAC’s improved for Redbook CD playback?

All CD players and DAC's have vanishingly low measured distortion, near perfect linearity and wide dynamic range. So what is the X - Factor that would account for so-called "differences" the "golden ear" crowd claims to hear? And it's certainly not jitter! Let the rock throwing begin!

@roberjerman


Here is a stone fir you!

Not true. Many DACs measure quite poorly. Stereophile A+ list doesn’t include every DAC they tested because only a few tested beyond reproach.

I agree that audible differences are often nit-picking. However there seems to be a recent trend towards lower accuracy (more euphonic) DACs which has accelerated. I guess after a few market leaders have finally (after 30 years) produced DACs with measurement beyond reproach, the next evolution or alternative is to market euphonic coloration to distinguish your product from others...

I don’t know over what time period you’re asking, but in the last 20 years dac chips per say have not improved greatly since NOS dac chips like the TDA1541a Double Crown or BB-1704k.

Today manufacturers are doing everything they can to "get a leading edge" in technology - instead of focussing on music. Overall the dac chips gives very little to the complete sound. I would say the digital part in total would contribute no more than about 15% or so to the complete sound. The psu and analog stage, combined with pcb layout matters more.

So yes, dacs have progressed significantly in the last 20 years, but not because of breakthroughs in dac chip technology. That comes down mainly to better parts (eg: caps, chokes), boards, psu’s, improved manufacturing processes etc & the natural evolution of dac topologies over time.

Been checking out streaming sources and was thinking about a DAC for that purpose.  I currently own an ARC Ref CD-8, which uses a Burr-Brown PCM1792 chipset D/A converter.  As to the OP's question about whether redbook DACs have improved much, I found the following Stereophile ARC CD-9 review interesting. 

 https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-cd9-cd-playerdac

Notably, Fred Kaplan made the following introductory comment:  "Now entering its fourth decade, the Compact Disc player seems to have reached a stage of maturity where the best models within a given price range will sound pretty much alike."  

Some may agree; some may not.  At least from Kaplan's perspective, some of the redbook CD bells and whistles that ARC incorporated into the CD-9 didn't make a whole lot of difference.

Based on that review and comments elsewhere, if I wanted to stick to redbook CD, I am not sure how motivated I would be to pick up a used CD-9.  That said, Kaplan commented that the streaming DAC features of the CD-9 were pretty impressive and offered quite a bit of utility and flexibility.

As I mentioned above, I have been toying with the idea of using streaming digital music as another source.  If go that route, I may upgrade my CD-8 to a CD-9 for the DAC features only; not for expectations of quantum leaps of performance in the redbook CD side of the house.

BIF