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When Will the DAC Singularity Be Reached?

A humorous title, but wondering if those more in the know have an opinion on either: i) examples today where inexpensive DACs (say under $2500) are comparable or superior to expensive (say over $10K) DACs or ii) can we anticipate that within a relatively few number of years that inexpensive DACs will basically achieve the sound quality of today's expensive DACs? Thanks. 

mathiasmingus
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jasonbourne71's avatar
jasonbourne71
843 posts
 

Never! As long as the money philes believe that spending more equates to ever-increasing sound quality. There will always be a new uber-expensive DAC for TAS to review!

carlsbad2's avatar
carlsbad2
1,382 posts
 

You've been reading too much ASR.  Cheap DACs are not outperforming high end DACs.  

jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 

I think the quality of Delta-sigma DAC chips had gotten very good and will continue to subtly improve, but there is more to a really good DAC than these chips. Quality clocks, output stages, power supplies, enclosures, and even connectors, are quite expensive and not getting any less so. All these things contribute to the sound quality (some more than others).

If anything, I suspect that the sound quality from inexpensive DACs (under $2500) has probably nearly reached its peak since the other parts necessary to build a good DAC are only getting more expensive.

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