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Zanden DAC

Hi guys, what do you think of the Zanden DAC? I red that this DAC actually uses an NOS Philips 16 bits, 44 kHz non oversampling DAC chip and no brick wall filter at all. The same design criteria are also used by Audionote. A non oversampling design means that the high frequency digital will invade your music signal, so I don't understand why the designers are applying this concept into their DAC's. Despite all this the Zanden DAC seems to sound very musical and even more musical than the best solid state upsampling units (according to some audiophiles). So theoretical limitations are not influencing sound quality here!

Defcon :)
dazzdax
thsalmon
348 posts
 
Perhaps the cure is worse than the disease when it comes to the design of some DACs!
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logenn
91 posts
 
I am using the Zanden 5000 Mk II DAC. I've used quite a few Digital systems in the past 12 months,i.e. Krell, Wadia, etc. , and this unit is the most musical. If you have a large redbook CD collection, this DAC is at the top of the short list. Still not as good as analog, nevertheless, quite acceptable.

Louis
jayarr
117 posts
 
My understanding is that these non-oversampling DAC's use an analogue filter rather than a digital brick wall filter. This apparently maintains phase integrity which they feel is more important than the digital artifacts. These artifacts are present in the suprasonic range which according to them can be filtered somewhat by analogue means to become sonically innocuous. Of course the proof is in the pudding and many people feel that these DAC's sound more natural/analog than DAC's with brickwall filters. These companies believe that the root of all digital evil resides in the brickwall filter.
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