Looks like it's time to reboot this thread since things are getting little out of hand, with lots of help from yours truly.
Let's start with some simple points that hopefully we can all agree on. 1) There are indeed significant differences between DACs at different price points. 2) In many cases a more expensive DAC will produce a more pleasant listening experience. 3) There are many other factors which need to be considered when attempting to evaluate the "sound" of a DAC. After these three simple statements is when everything starts to go off the rails. Take statement #1 - are the significant differences between DACs improvements or just different but equally valid ways of reproducing the sound. Statement #2 leaves open the question of whether the more pleasant listening experience is justifiable based on cost, listening environment, other components in one's system and quality of source material. Statement #3 is similar to #2 but also includes things like how the evaluation is conducted, one's mood when listening, the type of music one likes to listen to and many other factors. Finally throw into this crazy mix the fact that DACs, at least on the digital side of things, are basically computers and there are only limited chip sets which can perform the initial digital to analog conversion. Basically the major differences in most well designed DACs are what happens between the initial digital to analog conversion and analog signal produced at the outputs. And in the case of the super high priced DACs the quality of the metal used in the case :) - sorry I just couldn't resist throwing that in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96407 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
