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Digital Improving All the Time?

I hear it here all the time - digital technology is constantly improving…usually being told to someone afraid of buying something that will be obsolete soon. It is true that, with the advent of high-quality Asian products, prices on some excellent digital has come down to the point that one can buy a very nice dac for under 1k and an excellent one for 5k. But I don’t see that the technologies improved over the last 20 years. The Naim 555 and the Vekian and Wadias were astounding products built long ago. Even now, some of the best dacs from Audio Note and Jadis use old chips and the darling ladder dacs are even older technology. Ok, some use the FPGA thing, but that’s basically just a home-rolled chip, which does add a bit more flexibility to the architecture, but that’s about it, IMO. And yes, some companies like DCS and MSB built $100k dacs that I’m sure sound great, but other companies probably could have done the same thing 20 years ago by adding huge power supplies and stuffing them with the most expensive parts and construction quality possible. But they probably didn’t think anyone would buy them. And I’m not talking about streaming and such, because that is relatively young in its development. Streamers may well be improving, but I don’t see dacs as constantly improving, as is so often said. Good day.

chayro
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,614 posts
 

“And I’m not talking about streaming and such, because that is relatively young in its development.”

This would be incorrect as i have been streaming over 10 years now. I bought my first streamer from Aurender in 2011. The market is now flooded with streamers and servers at all price points. As far as DAC goes, a high quality DAC from 10 years ago is just as relevant today. The newer DAC certainly improved in the areas of noise isolation, jitter, clocks, power supply and chips. And accept higher resolution upto DSD1024. 

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,220 posts
 

The crystals especially temperature controlled over clocks the precision has just gotton much better, the-regulators too are much lower noise then even 3 years ago .

very low distortion resistors for the R2R ladders has gotton better also 

all these little things add up ,even super caps ,and FPGA units 

forstreaming the new Synergistic Research Ethernet hub truly  brings streaming to a new level much more analog and detailed even compared with say the uptone Audio Ether Regen hub which is great for $640, the Synergistic is retail $2k  my brother owns one and I have had in my system for a weekend ,I am buying one for sure, it truly takes your streaming to a new level ,very noticeable improvement.

esarhaddon
137 posts
 

@chyro
So your call going from 16/44.1 to 24/192 + just a slight improvement. Now I am not necessarily talking about DSD but overall I can D/L or listen to music at MUCH higher resolution than CD and though SACD did offer a pretty good resolution and having to replace one's entire library was not acceptable, Especially when you consider the ease of streaming.

I also think that what some people have been complaining about 'Listening Fatigue' is nothing more that the fact that they never had such complete sound and now they just aren't used to it and are fighting. Fortunately, I grew up with LIVE music including some personal experiences in the public forum so I rather enjoy all of this great-sounding music.

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,182 posts
 

@aewarren the Laser Prostate Center in Houston may be able help with that.  I can now chug  a couple of Big Gulps and open a pressure washing service.

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