Worlds best DAC

Bill, the ML3 Reference speakers sound very interesting and evokes thoughts of Dale Pitcher's speakers. Once you hear a probably grounded box (aka no box), there is no going back....

'Charles, most people who own SOTA vinyl and digital concurrently favor vinyl (Mike L. for example). Beyond that, people I trust who have nothing to sell still feel master tape is king. If digital works for you, great. Its a matter of goals and expectations. Its getting closer though as this and other threads indicate which is exciting.'

I sort of agree.

I was privy to the results of a little experiment where a rather good USB DAC was compared to a good vinyl system. The person doing it, and this is my view as well, thought the digital MURDERED the vinyl - much more life, detail and 'rightness' to my ears. The vinyl sounded dull and muffled. Guess what - to the total shock of the person doing the comparison about 50% preferred the vinyl, and 50% the digital. The exact areas the digital guys thought was way ahead - detail, and life was described by the vinyl brigade as a digital edge - what they called resolution and organic flow digital guys described as dull and lack of life.

The truth is not that digital or vinyl is better - it's rather we all lock onto different things.

I hasten to add this was not a uber expensive vinyl system - I have been assured by people whose ears I trust they can, and do, exceed the best digital.

But exactly how many have systems in that league?

Thanks
Bill

'Can you do an experiment? Convert some of your favorite PCM files to DSD64 or DSD128 using JRiver 19 Media Center, as I feel their PCM to DSD modulator is superb. Once done, feed the resulting DSD files through your MPD-3 and see what happens against your PCM DAC playing the same PCM files?'

I haven't got time for that right now - next few weeks here in Australia is Cricket and Tennis season and my time will be taken up with that.

But from my experience I think you are correct - it would likely improve things quite a bit.

What I do know of is experiments done with a Killer DAC where the output of a master tape was converted to DSD, then downsampled to 44.1 using some special software. There was a difference when played back via the Killer - but it was thought many wouldn't worry about it - it was that slight.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Agear,
Well that's very encouraging to hear, Robert has told me how good your room and system are, so the "digital sucks" just made no sense to me. My feeling was what a waste of money and time if that's your end result (how sad that'd be). Glad to know that isn't the case.

I agree that the recording quality is the primary limitation. Pop and rock seem to suffer the most. My fare overwhelming is jazz and this genre is recorded much better and is very close to a "good" vinyl LP and often equal or better(it depends on variables involved). I've done enough comparisons with high quality digital and
analog systems to say this with confidence(I can really enjoy either). I can bounce between both
during a listening seseion with no problem if both formats are done
properly. Just my experience and certainly others will disagree.

I looking forward to hearing the Lampizator -Pitcher room in a few days. Curious how it will sound compared to the Trinity set up I'll also listen to while there.
Charles,

Speaking of the world's best dac, the shootout between the Lampizator L7 and Trinity dac never took place as a "demo" unit was unavailable. I do understand from a business perspective that having a dac that costs substantially less being competitive is not good. Comparing it to a dcs stack is a "safer" comparison....:)