Is there any such thing as a bad sounding DAC these days?

@mikhailark But it would be totally awesome and change everything if you could prove what you are claiming! It would be sooooo cooooool.

@markwd Dude, all proofs are at ASR, you know everything. Everything is the same, measurements are everything. Go chat there.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263224123009363

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a cornerstone of digital signal processing, generating a computationally efficient estimate of the frequency content of a time series. Its limitations include: (1) information is only provided at discrete frequency steps, so further calculation, for example interpolation, may be required to obtain improved estimates of peak frequencies, amplitudes and phases; (2) ‘energy’ from spectral peaks may ‘leak’ into adjacent frequencies, potentially causing lower amplitude peaks to be distorted or hidden; (3) the FFT is a discrete time approximation of continuous time mathematics.

What else do you need to know about FFT being just an approximation? LMAO. Now you gonna tell me "but it is so small so it is not audible". Right?

@mikhailark Sure, but you are shifting your arguments around concerning the validity of multitone measurements (you assert they are insufficient but do not demonstrate why) and now you are asserting that known limitations of frequency domain methods make those measurements unhelpful or unreliable or something. It's just unsupported and baldly argumentative.

It would be very cool, however, if you demonstrated that you can show something important about audio systems that goes beyond the measurement methodologies widely employed! Sooooooo cooooool! 

@markwd - why do you think I care about your opinion?

@mikhailark Because of all the rich commentary I bring to the discussion thread!

There's null testing via software analysis and the reminder that multitone measurements do rule out some of the ambiguity around the specter of single tone testing. There's my always helpful reminder that it is important to show rather than just telling and how that is a critical part of our modern technological society. There are my insights on philosophical ideas dating back to Socrates (at least).

But mainly so that others can pick up on these diverse opinions and insights and make good decisions about resources and ideas related to our shared love of music and the technology of music reproduction! Sooooo coooool!