MBlue72;577430 Wrote: > 5)… I am now considering an additional outlay (Touch or DAC) for > two reasons. First, I have read more and more about improved sound > quality via ever-improving digital-to-analog conversion technology. > Second, I have noticed something odd recently. During the last few > years I have become more and more interested (and appreciative of) > “legacy” recordings and artists from the 60s and 70s. Of > course these recordings were originally analog and later converted to > digital for releasing as CDs. Some have been re-mastered and > re-released, some have not. I recently discovered that on these discs > the A-B comparison on my system has been much more dramatic – the > music played through my Sony player sounds obviously better. If the > sound quality improvement is so substantial using a twenty year old DAC > chip, what miracles might be occur with the newest technologies? (BTW, I > do not understand how a DAC can seem to dramatically improve the sound > quality of some CDs, have minimal impact on others and none on still > others.)
DAC chip technology has definitely changed since 1990. However, as noted already, if a 1990 DAC properly converted 44/16 sampled material to analog, then there isn't much that new technology can do to improve on the resulting sound. Of course it used to be that there were 16 bit DAC chips that were not actually 16-bit linear so they didn't get the D-to-A conversion quite right, and I seem to recall some noise shaping issues with early 1-bit DAC chips. So the actual D-to-A conversion might be better these days. I frankly have not been motivated to do the work to compare the final result. My 15+ year old PS Audio Ultralink DAC unit still sounds excellent in a relatively high end system, but I needed a second DAC so I also own a new state-of-the-art unit. As for you noting that some recordings sound much better through the Sony than the SB3 and others do not...well that is just what you would expect from two components with different levels of "resolution" (to put it simply). I recently resurrected my high end system (expensive equipment just sitting around unused for years, yikes!). Some songs are just stunning in their realism now (I had actually kind of convinced myself that my other systems were not that bad--but they weren't that good either). However, then I went to listen to some other favorite music and it was very disappointing because it didn't sound any better than with the lower quality systems. Unfortunately that is the reality of recorded music: some recordings are excellent and some are not. If you are hearing this sort of difference between the Sony and SB then you definitely should upgrade the SB sound in some way. As for how to best upgrade the sound of the SB3 (external DAC vs. Touch), I am not sure. I have not done any listening tests with the Touch analog, having always used it with an external DAC for various reasons. Most people seem to think the Touch' analog section is much better than the Duet, but how much better? As I already said, the Duet Receiver analog vs. my 15 year old Ultralink was no contest in even an only entry level high end system. I am rather skeptical that a $300 Touch would sound as good as a well designed DAC unit, which would generally have put a lot more expense into the final analog section, but it is certainly possible it would be good enough for you. So the best option is clearly for you to try to get both and listen, but I can sympathize with how hard this is when you live in a fairly rural area (as I also do now). Yes, both have 30 day return policies, but I suspect (from personal experience) that AA is not going to just take the DAC back, they are going to try convince you to do more testing and keep it--returning online audio is not like returning something to Walmart. -- ncarver ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ncarver's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15905 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82067 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
