Are "vintage" DAC's worthwhile, or is this a tech that does not age well

Hi Telefunkin74

I'd be really curious to know if you did that test again what you'd find.

Another side effect I've found of modern DAC's' is that upsampling isn't that much of a benefit, but older DAC's consistently benefit from upsampling.

Don't get me wrong, there is a difference, but the difference is much more narrow, and in the very top octave. I can explain the benefits today by looking at the frequency response of 44.1/16 vs. 96/24 or higher. There's just a hint more air, sometimes hardness.

In older DAC's everything seemed better with high res signals. Bass, imaging, tonal complexity and the ability to play complex musical passages without becoming mushy.

@charles1dad You are so right about that and the guy I sold my Yamamoto Dac to raved over it so much I almost wanted it back ;) And yes analog output stages and power supplies are probably more important than the Dac chip and its implementation.

Hi @jond,
One key similarity between the Yamamoto YDA-01 and your Audio Note DAC is the choice to go with a very simple circuit and discrete analogue output stages. They avoided OP-amps in this stage and also shunned them for I/V conversion.

 Rationale given  was to have a zero NFB DAC circuit. All these years later and neither has saw the need to change the circuit design. . They’ve both have stood the test of time successfully.
Charles

My ancient Wadia 15 (redbook only) outperforms my Bryston BDP-1 even when it's playing hi-res!

Endlessly chasing detail, detail, detail is a mistake! A friend proudly using an uber expensive dCS agrees that my old Wadia is better but only on redbook and says if we tried hi-res on his unit there would be no comparison. I said OK lets do it. He explained that his hi-res files were at the office and that we could try another time.

Never happened. I found it very clean and detailed but would not want that soulless sound.

So yes, vintage DACs are definitely worthwhile and the good ones do age well. I get the impression my heavyweight Wadia will outlast me and just about everything else.

for those who wonder...Jim White of Theta and Aesthetix..makes an absolutely killer modern DAC.....Pandora..

open the box, if you dare.

Yes, the Wadia stuff was magic...hold on to that 64