I would say that DACs to tend to sound the same. The differences in audio quality come along with all of the other components inside the box with the DAC -- power transformers, circuitry, capacitors, specific arrangement of parts, the analog output stage, etc. The DAC chips themselves by this point are pretty spot on. It's the stuff they fit in with that makes most of the difference.
That said, does anyone have any reference for machine-measurements of the outputs of different dac chips? Just because we can't blind test a difference between chips doesn't mean there isn't a fraction of a percent difference in THD or whatever among them.
And about the noise you're experiencing -- interference, power, ground loops, etc. A lot of electricity moving around in side a computer, creates a lot of interference. this gives you a louder noise floor when you use sensitive headphones to listen for it. Perhaps by hooking the speakers in first, and then the headphones into them, you are adding resistance or something that is muting out that noisefloor a little more? I'm no electrician so someone who knows the exact reasons for this would need to chime in.
This post was extremely informative. My understanding of this post is that all DAC's should be the same then? if they aren't converting the 1's and 0's into the correct analogue signal then the music would sound completely different? Does that mean the Cheap DAC's should cost the same as the expensive DAC's? Also what do you mean by quiet? Is this to stop sensitive headphones from hissing or hearing an electrical noise? When I connect my e10's to the line out of the PC mobo, I get electrical noise. Even when I connect the speakers to the mobo line out and then my e10's to the line out of the speaker, but the noise isn't as loud. Does this have anything to do with this topic?
Edited by Timestretch - 1/12/12 at 12:46pm
) but we don't really cover microelectronics as much.
