Comparing external DAC to CD player DAC

Not surprised - the old Marantz stuff was really nice.  - we still have a Marantz CD-94 in our listening room and people are amazed wen they hear it compared to the new stuff.  You mention a $300 product.  We cannot even find a chassis for $300 to install parts so IMO how can that product be basically any good or offer an improvement in sound quality.

Happy Listening

PCs and MACs are generally terribly electrically noisy devices. They weren’t designed for high end audio at all. Like others, I suspect your MAC being used as a streamer via USB is your weakest link here. You might find streaming even via an iPAD to be "better". Just beware the iFi Stream. The current version has known bad and frustrating Wi-Fi connection issues that have NOT been worked out yet. Many love how it sounds - when it works. I’m hoping iFi will come out with a "Mark 2" version one day with these issues fixed. I’d much rather buy one to feed an external DAC than a Bluesound Node.

You never mention what DAC you have...Maybe a Geshelli Labs J2? Or Schiit Audio Modius or one of the ubiquitous Chinese DACs from Topping or S.M.S.L.?

In any event do know that some Chinese delta-sigma DACs do err on the thin side of sound to give a fake impression of detail, but that is slowly changing. Some may actually like that presentation. To each their own.

For $79 you might try a WiiM Mini Streamer to replace the MAC (using optical into your DAC). It would be a cheap way to eliminate the noisy computer at least, and you could always repurpose it for use in another room or garage system.

Or as Paul McGowan suggests in the video posted above, try using Bit Perfect on it, if you aren’t, to eliminate all that Apple nonsense about futzing with the audio, i.e. screwing it up.

i’d like to hear what the DAC is, and what apps you are using on the Apple unit, whether you are going bitperfect, and how you are isolating your USB from the computer’s noise. If for example, you use the computer’s digital volume control you can be down in 10-12 but resolution very quickly. Settings matter too - from the basics to more esoteric stuff. Computer audio sadly demands some new learning. Only then can we begin to comment. Absent that its guessing or pontificating.

Absent facts id; say no that is not expected. But then, what kind of sound do you liek and does the DAC tend that way (detail vs smooth, blah blah).

To many who said "no surprise they sound the same at that price" - he said the opposite. Which is curious.  there are of course lousy $300 Dacs. Some that get good reviews are, IMO, kinda analytical adn nasty.

totally disagree with "old mac is the problem". I wont get into either the theory nor my extensive step by step subjective testing - but done right it can be as good as anything. But there are many pitfalls to ANY computer based streamer. Note i have posted the gory detail several times before. And if apples are truly compared to apples USB is the interface of choice and done right pretty much takes the streamer/server out of the equation.

While we may be encouraged to believe in magic, partly by pompous "engineers who overlook minor details and/or psychoacoustics - if you get it right, anything that is bitperfect and electrically quiet over USB will be identical to any other. Timing is entirely in the DAC. but those two caveats, plus things like upsampling show that the devil is in the details.

Mac into that level dac will fall short of the sound quality that marantz cdp produces. To run a fair comparison and or to determine the real potential if that dac run your cdp into it via spdif.