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


I've been talking to my cousin brother about sound quality. He is a self-proclaimed expert audiophile. He says that Audio Science Review has all of the answers I will need regarding audio products.

In particular, he says an inexpensive DAC from any Chinese company will do better than the expensive stuff. He says fancy audio gear is a waste of money because the data is already bit-perfect.  All DAC chips sound the same. Am I being mislead? 

He also said that any DAC over $400 is a waste of money. Convincing marketing is at play here, he says.

He currently owns a Topping L30 headphone amplifier and D30 Pro DAC. He uses Sennheiser HD 569 headphones to listen to music.  I'm not sure what to think of them. I will report my findings after listening one day! (likely soon, once I get some free time)

- Jack 

 

 

jackhifiguy

One major factor that may have been covered somewhere in this thread is how revealing your system is. If you have speakers, amps and related equipment that can accurately translate the signal fed to them you'd be amazed at the difference in sound quality between DACs, CD transports and yes, even cables. 

@kcleveland 

My headphones have distortion <<0.01%.  I am not sure there is any speaker made with distortion that low. My DAC and headphone amplifier have far lower distortion than that.  No speaker and amp you have is going to be more revealing.

I am not amazed when there are no difference between DACs, interconnects, or what is streaming the digital signal. There is no reason for the difference to be there.

Thanks very interesting article indeed ...

It is very true and i experienced it when tuning my room ....

Timbre of voice and instrument is determined by a time envelope and a spectral envelope...But by amplitude of certain frequencies range too...

 

Then a Dac is one thing ... Acoustic magnification of any good dac power is another thing...

@mahgister

I think this would help to explain:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33873218/

I have 2 DACs and my Vault connected to my pre and they all sound different