What makes a DAC so expensive?

Rubbish!  Brightness is first and foremost a function of the engineering of the recording.  To some extent the venue and other "external" factors, but primarily the ADC used by the recording engineer, plus any post-recording processing.  The early DDD recordings made by Deutsche Grammophon (DGG) were often excruciatingly bright.

Rubbish! Brightness is first and foremost a function of the engineering of the recording.

Brightness and harshness are IMPRESSIONS.... They come from the recording yes sometimes....And this is what i wrote: " Files or cd VARY in relative brightness"...

Please try to read a post before trashing it....

Anyway bright recording are unlistenable on some BAD system, way less so on a good balanced one.....That was my point...But you can take a bad audio too warm system and listen with it too bright files for sure, but 2 bad dont do a good one....

And your "first and foremost" forget the way many bad audio systems, already bright and harsh by themselves, worsen the situation with a bright recording...There exist way more unbalanced bright audio system than too much bright files or cd in a collection....I own 10,000 files and cd by the way....

Then your suggestion is wrong because these IMPRESSIONS of brightness may come from one or another or the 2, the recording and the audio system....But a balanced audio system make anything more listenable and that was my point....



Rubbish yourself then....

:)

«Logic is a two way sword, dont cut yourself with the sword» -Groucho Marx

Mahjister
You quote Grouchy alot.....never saw him as a philosopher but that was a mistake on my part.

“If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong.”
― Groucho Marx

:)

 I like him so much that i attribute all my thinking to him and much.....

Mahgister,

Always been a big Groucho fan. You’re quotes reminded me to do some binging on old "You Bet Your Life" episodes available on Tubi.

Still waiting for some of those deep philosophical quotes, but the quick wit is on full display, especially when any attractive young lady from 1955 shows up as a contestant. :^) You wouldn’t be able to say some of those things on network TV these days.

Where do I go to buy a beautiful 1955 Desoto with push button drive these days?

The other day we saw a live chicken in front of a local fried chicken joint. Why she crossed the road I’ll never know........  #:^/