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What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

As the title suggests, what was your overall system and DAC at the point where you bought only a new DAC and said “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away? 

So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?

I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……


pip_helix
sudnh
101 posts
 
While staying with the same dac (project dac box s2+) I did upgrades,,,

My “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better...” upgrades are:

1) Change to the new ifi Elite power supply
2) Change of optical cable to the Supernova 7 Mini Toslink Optical

I was stunned that changing the optical cable made a huge difference in sound quality. Thank you thecableco.com for their loaner program where I could try out optical cable change and insisting I do so when I couldn’t fathom that an optical cable would make a difference!

I am a long time analogue audiophile that has "dipped my toe" in digital many times over the years and retracted with horror.

Pleased that in the last few years digital can now provide an enjoyable listening experience at surprisingly affordable prices!

But there are plenty of (too many) bad digital transfers of old recordings and many not great new ones so my analogue rig is not going anywhere where pure analogue still is more enjoyable. Looking fwd to my next DAC upgrade into $1K+ territory.....

jun_zhang's avatar
jun_zhang
19 posts
 
too many DAC.  I have Oppo205 , Denafrips Ares ii and Topping D90. All sound good. It's the music not the DAC that make the sound good. I won't waste my time and money for DAC. Rather spend time listen to good music.
jpsreno
78 posts
 
two very different approaches to Dacs made a sonic difference immediately, when dialed in even better 
The feature driven ADI Dac2 FS
The tube output exquisite sounding Cary 200ts 
poibroch's avatar
poibroch
4 posts
 
Previous system:
  • Lossless sound files from Mac Mini >
  • USB DAC input of Oppo BDP-105>
  • Pair of Geithain RL906 speakers.
"Damn!" DAC which replaced the Oppo in the otherwise identical room, system, and listening position:

Convert-2 by Dangerous Music.

The increase in sonic detail is breathtaking.

  • The individual character of each acoustic instrument, including voice, is now apparent.
  • The individual voices of backup singers are now clearly separated and identifiable.
  • The phantom centre is so solid that everyone hearing this system for the first time starts looking on the equipment rack for a third centre speaker.

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