dac chip vs analog stage as to sonic impact

"if one were to assign a percentage contribution to the dac and analog stage as to the affect upon the overall sound, what might the numbers look like?"

70% DAC

30% Analog stage

Regards,
Alex

hi alex, do you mean that a tube analog stage may not overcome the faults of a dac chip ?

Mrtennis, that is exactly correct. Masking inferior digital design and DACs with tubed analog stage sounds really bad indeed, IMHO.

At the same time, carefully designed digital with an appropriate DAC can do miracles with just a few Op Amps and all solid state output buffer.

Of course, the "real deal" (for me) is superior digital/DAC design combined with fast and transparent tube output stage.

Regards,
Alex

hi alex. it seems to me that the better dacs are not 24/192. i have yet to hear a cd player or a d/a converter with such a chip regardless of mods sound anything but digital and forced.

the old cal aria and the old cal tempest were ideal products.

By current standards the CAL products are very colored in their sound. Not unpleasant sounding, but not particularly accurate to the source material.