Are DAC's overpriced?
FORTUNATELY, before I pulled the trigger, I got to hear my system via a prototype coax (not at liberty to say whose) but the cable was TRANSFORMATIVE This is simply jitter reduction, and probably not much of it. If you think that is good, try a really good silver BNC terminated coax cable with a Synchro-Mesh reclocker. 7psec of jitter directly measured. You eyes will pop out of your head. I used to mod AA DAC's and resamplers BTW. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
chayro... "Just a little point here - I had a 2900 and it was a well-built unit with a smooth, non-offensive sound. I hope you find a nice dac you are happy with, but don't automatically assume you will prefer it to what you have. That's why you really have to try and see for yourself. Personally, I prefer 1-box units for their simplicity and not having to deal with digital cables, reclockers, whatever. But I'm a simple guy. :)" I received a "Box O Goodies" today from my mentor In the industry and I will say this... I don't need a DAC with the 2900... not with my simple two channel system! I changed the speaker wires and that made a very nice, much more open sounding rig. I'm not going Tidal or buying a new computer to listen to something I don't own! http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy302/thegainster/49667060_235612500648601_5983303984981475328_n.... |
I think the question about audio products being over-prices are pretty meaningless unless you explain your thinking in more detail. If you don't think you can hear any difference at all between a $100 dac and a $10 000 dac you can just buy the cheap one and be happy. Many people listen to cheap bluetooth speakers and are happy. If you mean that a specific piece of gear is overrpices you could elaborate a bit more why you think so. I think that TotalDACs and dCS dacs are expensive but I did like them when I heard them at an audio show. At the same time I don't have the financial means to buy any of them so I don't really care. I hope that some of the technologies inside ripple down to cheaper dacs sooner or later. If I had a stereo bought for about $10 000 I would probably be looking for dacs around $2000 up to $3000. If I had a stereo bought for +$100 000 and had the money to buy new things to it (I wish) I would also look at the expensive dacs but try to listen and compare them to some $3000 dacs. If you just want something and don't think dacs matter you could by a Chord Mojo or a iFi Micro Black Label and use that for a few months. Then you can try to find something better and try to compare it with your current dac. Those are easy to carry around if you want to bring them to a store and compare there (some stores will let you do that). |
