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Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC

Hi,

 

will a dual differential XLR DAC (with i.e. 2x Left DAC chips + 2x Right DAC chips) always sound better than a Single Ended DAC (with i.e. 1x Left DAC chip + 1x Right DAC chip) assuming that they have the same DAC chip model and same board design (except the dual circuitry of the XLR version)?

 

The XLR has twice the output voltage, but will pure audio quality be certainly superior to the Single Ended version?

 

Thanks for your opinion!

 

Gianluca

gkg2k
soix
9,552 posts
 

This hobby would suck if I didn’t trust my ears enough and to the point where I had to rely on measurements to tell me what’s good or not.  Sad.  Truly sad.  I look at measurements too, but Jeez. 

yage
400 posts
 

I don't see what beef people have with ASR or Amir. I think he's doing a great service for the community measuring all this gear.

If you like gear with crappy measurements, so be it. The conclusions / recommendations are his opinion so you're free to reject it.

Personally, I like to buy products that are well engineered *and* sound good. Usually if you have the former, then you've got a good chance for the latter.

melvinjames
416 posts
 

I've had my Pagoda for about 3 years and out of curiosity I read the "review" and subsequent posts on ASR. What's fascinates me about Amir and ASR in general is the lack of actual listening to the product he's measuring. I know Amir took a hit for this a couple of years ago but it seems not much has changed in that regard. 13 pages of bashing a DAC none of them have heard nor will ever hear because of SINAD (it's the worst in ASR history!). OK, bad measurements according to Amir, but how does is sound? Apparently it doesn't matter and the acolytes are all over the forums trying to save us from ourselves yet again. Joy.

soix
9,552 posts
 

What's fascinates me about Amir and ASR in general is the lack of actual listening to the product he's measuring. 

BINGO!!!  In his world, measurements trump listening.  He can’t trust his own ears and let’s measurements dictate what must sound good.  Measurements are important, but they’re not everything.  

cindyment's avatar
cindyment
351 posts
 

@yage

I don’t see what beef people have with ASR or Amir. I think he’s doing a great service for the community measuring all this gear.

Because measurements cannot be refuted. Because it pokes holes in audiophile claims. Because how does one reconcile their claim to be able to tell the difference between cables and fuses, but you are happy with a DAC that has barely 8-12 bits of performance. Worse, how does one reconcile claims of superior hearing or listening experience, when unaware of very significant artifacts? One could almost make the leap that electronics really do barely matter, and the speakers really are king, by far.

I would have thought the logical first thought would be, maybe it is broken, but I don’t see this in the thread, just defending the truly abysmal performance. Perhaps it is broken or perhaps it is a really bad design. Taking a look at the pictures, there are some things that on first glance concern me, so I tend to the latter, a really bad design. It does give credence to the fact, one that many audiophiles object to, that loud sounds mask quieter sounds and hence claims of being able to hear low level details during louder passages is suspect.

I would be a little disappointed if I paid for an 8 cylinder with a supercharger and ended up with a 4 cylinder with bad compression on 2 cylinders, but never realized it as I never take it out of the neighborhood.

 

 

 

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