kh6idf;318321 Wrote: > I just posted a reply to another thread with basically the same > information, but I am using an external DAC with mostly internet > radio/Pandora/Last.fm listening. It sounds REALLY good even though it > is just 128kbps for most of the streams. There are some internet radio > streams at 256 and sometimes higher that sound even better (look for > AVRO in the shoutcast classical section) , but I am very happy with > what I'm hearing at 128. Clear, transparent, detailed and coherent > (emphasis on the coherent) with a nice solid stereo image and bass > foundation. The SB3 internal DAC is pretty decent but I am hearing > more transparency and coherence with the external DAC. If you could > borrow a good DAC from someone or invite them over to hear the SB3 and > bring their DAC it would be a no-cost way to evaluate the difference. > Or try to get the DAC on a trial basis where you can return it if you > don't think it makes enough difference.
I agree that at higher bit rates lossy can sound quite good, and even the low bitrates are OK for background listening and such. But seriously, when listening to music, and by that I mean sitting in the sweet spot with no books, newspapers, laptops etc, turn the volume up and the lights down. Then 128k sounds nothing but crappy. Of course "crappy" is relative to some baseline defined by the overall setup. Better dacs, speakers, etc will move the "crappy"-threshold. But the point is that the quality is so much worse than it could be with proper source material. If the difference is not that significant in a system with specs such as yours, then there must be something else missing in the setup, such as room acoustics, speaker placement etc. :) -- bhaagensen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ bhaagensen's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7418 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=49648 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
