Personal confuser Audio which aspect has the greatest impact on SQ?


Hello all,

it usually goes with out saying that ‘everything’ in the audio system makes a difference in sound quality. as we all know, Everything Matters.

PC audio has metriculated into new vistas which now and then beg for more digital hardware such as, NAS, servers, ethernet renderers, USB converters, bridges, additional clocks, dual clocks, dual DACs (one per ch), and outboard power sups for many of these listed gizmos to boot.

even the media management and or streaming software seems to have its own influenece on the sonic presentation.

so lets try to sort out where the REAL money needs to go in the digital turn table arrangement, if indeed there has been significant changes in your opinion.

i read yesterday that the error correction used in iTunes is a very poor idea on that theme and it can in fact degrade the ripped product dramatically as it averages out multiple errors rather than addressing them individually, thus destroying or severely degrading the end result of your ripped cD.

as well, in the digital signal path we were concerned with pico seconds of jitter or distortion, degrading the sound quality, now we are faced with worrying about even smaller ’portions of these same pico second’ anomolies.

furthermore, there are the cabling and interfaces which must be connected so the signal can be found, accepted, and converted to analog, USB, AES, BNC, SPDIF, HDMI, I2s, Ethernet, and TOS..

at times even the overall lengths of the digital cables became quite impactful.

and we all know the dAC has been for darn near ever, either the ONLY link, or the most crucial link in this equation, but has it now been upstaged or set aside in its import for the quality of sound being produced?

IOW, has the bridge, renderer, power supply or cable tech become so improved the DAC is no longer the primary vital, highest priority ingredient for achieving better sound quality?

or….

Are the aforementioned digital ‘incidentals’ or accessories far less significant factors in achieving improved audio quality and the DAC still remains the most important key to obtaining great sound??

many thanks
blindjim
Personal confuser Audio which aspect has the greatest impact on. Important things to knw is thatwadia betterthan other brand of audio equipments. In Korea we make many good tests of audio sounds Many people . WADIA best of all.
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At best, the swapping of gizmos around is causing the AC line to develop a new noise profile.


So, deal with your AC and environmental noise by isolating wall warts and digital devices from linear using coils. Shunyata or Furman.


Use shielded (but not overly expensive) power cables where you can.

The rest is op to the clock and isolation capabilities of your DAC. Avoid ifi digital signal purifiers, they tend to move rather than eliminate noise. Use linear supplies where you can.

@Eric
thanks much.

for clarity sake… again…..

my curiosity here revolves around these upscale server - renderers and or the one box music streamer gizmos proliferating the digital market.

from Sonars Micro Rendu, various itterations of Aurenders, Wolfe Audio, Lumen, Blu node, etc., and as well of late, some dSP preamp and DAC combos ala Legacy and Anthem for example, just how relevant is a stand alone DAC in developing the digital signal anymore?

I believe in perhaps two cases recently I heard systems which used either wolfe or Lumen music streaming units as sources into standard preamps sans dACS, and I felt the result was very good and extremely good in those two instances

naturally then I began wondering just how significant stand alone dACs are becoming these days, especially if or when a person is not gonna be dropping large wads of cash into their outfits?

two rigs with DACs….
one case I recalled did have a preamp/DAC in the chain and I felt that one as well was exceptionally nice sounding. it ran a Bel Canto ‘black box’ (?) unit and fed a Carver 75wpc tube amp. with Blade Iis as the speakers this little setup was fascinating.

lastly the goose Bumps rig was the Merril Audio and MuAudio combo, which had a EMM labs 2x DAc feeding Merril’s christine pre, and 116s monos. top notch sounding! Really! I’m not at all keen on ‘stat speakers but there was a setup even I could be quite happy with for a good long while.

both the BC DAC/pre and the EMM Labs dAC cost about the same money retail.

so the question begging to be addressed is “Has the ‘stand alone’ DAC been supplanted or is it about to be kicked to the curb by the new enclave of music streamer and or renderers, Integrated amps, modular Preamps ala aVM, Bel Canto, etc.?

unless one is willing to throw a new Jet Ski and trailer into the system by adding a stand alone DAC I’m thinking one may not be necessary, either now or very soon.