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  3. 187947-21

Good measuring DACs vs.

I recently owned and compared a number of DACs in my system and was particularly interested in the sound of two "perfect measuring" DACs, the Mola Mola Tambaqui and the Benchmark DAC3 HGC. With either of those, it seemed every note came out clearly, cleanly, and accurately, without a hint of distortion. Both have been reviewed by Stereophile, and John Atkinson concluded his review measurements with,

"The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance. I am not surprised HR liked its sound."

and,

"Benchmark’s DAC3 HGC offers state-of-the-art measured performance. All I can say is "Wow!"

So, why is it that neither of these two objectively perfect DACs seem to emotionally engage me to the same level as my Mojo Audio Mystique EVO Pro, which is an R2R design using (basically antique) AD1862 "Z" chips? How can I not perceive the same levels of body, tone, or dimensionality from two DACs which exhibit "state-of-the-digital-art measured performance" and that really do nothing wrong?

mitch2
chayro
2,931 posts
 

I think that one premise that a lot of people seem to accept is that distortion always sounds bad. Any change from the input signal is distortion. So all the things that studios do to make recorded instruments sound “better” are distorting the signal. Noise is another thing, but I don’t think the human ear is that sensitive to noise if it is constant. Listen to Take Five on vinyl. Loaded with tape hiss, but still enjoyable.

 

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
613 posts
 

DAC measurements are the least reliable of all, especially since they tend to concentrate in the D rather than the A side of the DAC. As per Erik Squires, most modern DAC chips measure excellently in terms of their linearity, so most of the current measurements don't give any idea of sound quality of the finished product.

koestner
626 posts
 

Charyo hits the nail on this one. Not all distortion is bad sounding. Look at those 300B amps, they sound good, but distort a lot. Some distortion is pleasant sounding, so if it has a high price tag, then it's good.

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hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,814 posts
 

Do people understand the brain and aesthetic preference so well that they can capture these in various acoustic measurements and then have those measurements standardized for deployment in the audio industry?

Of course not, but since numbers are "serious" they can be seriously misused.

Some numbers mean something related to aesthetic taste.

But aesthetic taste in audio is as complex a phenomenon as "marriage" or "friendship" is. So why would we assume it can be reduced and parlayed, thus? Rhetorical question.

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