The DAC Scam - Almost everyone believes the hype

@audiotroy ​​@loomisjohnson @soix 

+1 ….. big time….

Simply put, “what makes a good DAC?”.

Too many believe that the magic silver bullet secret to a good DAC lies in just choosing a “high-end” converter chip flavour of the day,

Chip design is important, BUT …. with hands-on audio experience and verified by direct unit audition bake-offs …. as we go up the price-point ladder, we also learned that the essence of the musicality also resides in the line signal processing stages, the power supplies (transformers, filtering, regulation), the digital signal processing before conversion, the quality of the key components: clocks, transistors, capacitors, etc. ….these are foundations of DAC sonic improvements

@jasonbourne71 , There’s a bit more nuance to a dac than distortion, sinad, transparency whatever. They can quite significantly change a soundfield, spatial cues, perceivable detail with dsp tricks (fpga, etc).

Get a simple Creative soundcard and try the different tweaks on their dsp engine.

I have a couple of prepros that will let you create a very different experience everyday if one wanted (through dsp).

But, since the vulture priced dacs are typically sold to "purist" guys who are a bit technologically challenged, the dsp tricks.."flavors" are more hidden away.

A DAC is basically a sound card. Expensive DAC’s are trophies for the gullible rich to impress their clueless buddies!

You have been on ASR review web site  again .

totally disagree starting from the router ,the wall wart garbage has to go just ads more noise , I bought a LTA LPS power supply ,and a decent $600 Ethernet switch ,decent power cords , and quality Ethernet cables, USB , and I2S cables 

Everything counts . The Terminator15  dac is very good and resolving 

and my new Swiss Merason Dac 1-MK2. Is probably one of the most analog sounding dacs out there ,both dacs are far better then Anything under $5k. Having heard literally over 100 dacs over 20 years  technology in digital has Greatly advanced. $5k on up is A respectable reference point To start ,this is just from my experiences and IMO.

I don’t believe hype and I don’t believe reviewers either. I just listen to different devices and decide for myself.