The sound quality from DACs - is it all the same?

The Border Patrol dac measured poorly, according to John Atkinson of Stereophile. However, upon listening to it, Herb Reichert gave it a glowing review. Lots of people own and love the Border Patrol dac, including myself.

The Musical Fidelity V90 dac is shockingly good @ only $299. I think it is now unavailable/discontinued. I thought it sounded so good, I bought two...I use one, the other is put away. It is considered a class A component according to Stereophile.

In my opinion, my short post covers the gamut of measuring, subjective listening, and price. Just looking at the 2 examples above, you can see that there is no rhyme or reason why something sounds good, weather it be a measurement or price.

@markahall I’d be very interested in your findings once you hear the mola mola, against the previous DACs mentioned. I too own the ARIES G2.1 and at some stage wish to upgrade from the internal dac of the Hegel H390, Chord and Mola Mola were on the list. While I had also considered the May KTE, in the end I’ve removed it as I’d prefer the peace of mind purchasing from a dealer gives you.

@chayro 

Exactly!

@mahgister 

If they did spoke about the primacy of acoustic instead of suggesting upgrading multiple times each audiophile would learned to direct his focus on other less costly acoustic solutions than electronic upgrades only ... There is many acoustic solutions even for living room...

Magazine will loose their share of publicity if they did otherwise...

Yes, it can be a real eye opener if you ever see the cluttered listening rooms that some rather well known reviewers use at home.

Fair enough they may have the same space restraints as the rest of us, but purpose built, carefully set up and treated, they're not.