The DAC Scam - Almost everyone believes the hype

Agree with @big_greg!

Aren’t all speakers just drivers and enclosures??  Amps just transistors and transformers?? 🤔

@ facten @knownothing Thank you both for your replies. I like the thought of a tube DAC. I don't want fatiguing anything. For clarification, I have a desktop computer feeding a Dragonfly black which is feeding a Conrad Johnson PV-10AL which is feeding an Audiophonics LPA-S500NC into KEF LS50's. 

It sounds like even a $400 DAC is going to be an improvement provided I find one that suits my tastes. I like that ultra tubey sound. Euphonic is the word I hear used to describe the sound I like. Marantz back in the day used to have what was referred to as the "two martini sound". I have always been a fan of vintage Marantz sound. 

It sounds like both of you liked the Chord line of DAC's, and for reasons I can appreciate. I'll read reviews and compare the Mojo's to some of the Topping DAC's like the E70 Velvet and the Denefrips Aries. I read a review that described the Velvet as sounding warm and non fatiguing, but than I read another review that didn't describe it that way.

Anyway, thank you both so much for your thoughtful replies. I may just buy several DAC's from Amazon or other outlets that allow returns and test until I find what suits me. Thanks again.

Matt

The video creator is an idiot, and I hate point blank statements like that, without inspection.....either for or against.

I have tried about 13 or so DACs in my system, with my components, with my ears. All of them made audible differences, some positive and some negative. R2R ladder DACs sound best to my ears, and Lampizators I'm extremely fond of, but I'm not exactly sure what they are yet.

When I had a $15,000 system, lot's of DACs sounded very similar; because my system could not reveal the differences. Years later I now have a $50,000+ setup, and DACs are noticeably different from one another.

I choose to ignore the hype and the ignorance, and just focus on what sounds best to me in my system. In that vein, DACs have made improvements and they don't have to cost $20,000, there are some killer DACs in the $3,000 to $5,000 range......incredible starts a bit up from there.

So much of life is suggestion and predisposition, and this, is mostly that. The video tells you the truth. But beauty matters, build quality matters, parts quality every step of the way matters. So I don't agree that in a "good" system there's not going to be audible differences between a few hundred dollar ADC/DAC and a several thousand dollar unit.

His comments about snake oil are true. Confirmation bias? True. There is no doubt other than your own, but it really doesn't matter. To the degree that multi-thousand dollar units vary in sound is either (and mostly) by design, or it's a bad design, but folks love the sound. Personally I don't believe that altering the D/A output is the way to go. I'd rather figure out what's really lacking in the rest of my signal path.

I do believe that above a few thousand dollars, you're getting into more art than engineering -- and yes -- it's mostly in the looks. Spending $20 or $30k on a unit is not buying better sound. You may like one top-flight Cabernet Sauvignon over another, but it's not better-than/worse-than -- it's just your taste.

This hobby/love is loaded with BS -- but then again, so are countless others.

Diminishing returns. Is Rolls Royce better than BMW? Only for you to know and decide.