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All DAC's sound the same.
Jun 26, 2011 at 5:26 PM Post #16 of 373


Quote:
bisayaboi said:
Well if my integrated sound chipset happened to be good that's nice but the point I'm trying to convey is that anything over $100 spent on DAC's is a waste since as long as the DAC is of good enough quality it will sound the same. Hell, possibly spending over $30-50 might be waste...
 
 
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Professional cards go over $100 so my guess would be noooo, but according to NewAvGuy there are plenty of cheap options out there that perform well also. 
 
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 5:33 PM Post #17 of 373
Quote:
satellite_6 said:
Professional cards go over $100 so my guess would be noooo, but according to NewAvGuy there are plenty of cheap options out there that perform well also. 
 
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Yeah but isn't that for recording purposes (and also gaming, like my Xtreme X-fi Gamer) and not outputting sound? Like aameford said:
 
Quote:
aamefford said:
Generally wouldn't get sucked in, BUT...  In theory, if a dac is "good"  it should sound the same as other "good" dacs - wait, here me out - a dac is supposed to decode the music as it was recorded, and render it as it was recorded, not add a sound of its own.  So, if a "good" dac (or any dac for that matter) is doing its job appropriately, it should sound like another "good" dac doing it's job appropriately.  My limited experience with dacs (apogee duet, Cambridge audio dacmagic, pico dac/amp, headroom UDA with max dac, udac2, CEntrance Dacport LX, the V-Dac, headphonia dac cable, Leckerton UDA-4), and they all sound mostly the same, and just varying degrees of "good".  Amp and headphones are likely the limit in hearing just how "good" a dac is. Cables - meh.  As long is it is a good conductor, quality built, and of appropriate size for the load, I can't tell the difference.
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DAC's simply converts digital data into analog wave form. It shouldn't add anything to the sound but make recording sound 100% authentic to it's recording.
 
 


 
Jun 26, 2011 at 5:45 PM Post #18 of 373
Yep, a DAC's job is pretty cut and dry. You can accurately convert digital to analog with any number of chipsets or slightly different methods. The end result is the same. What's strange is how little people appreciate this. Good DACs are getting cheaper and more common. You can get a terrific digital source for very little money. This is the kind of thing that's celebrated in other technologies.

20 years ago, I bought a Mac Classic. IIRC, 8MHz proc and a 20GB hard drive. 9" black and white CRT monitor. Cost $1,000. Look at what $1,000 will buy you today. Pissing and whining over good, inexpensive DAC chipsets, etc., is exactly like insisting that a computer should cost $4,000 because that's what computers cost in the good old days, and pretending that faster, cheaper machines don't exist.

Digital got really good and really cheap. That's reality.

And let's not compare DACs to cables. DACs are legitimate products made by actual engineers. Cables are the local psychic palm reader who tries to grift a few hundred out of you by insisting that there's "unseen danger ahead" and the only way to fix it is by coming back with a lot of cash.
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 6:04 PM Post #20 of 373


Quote:
caracara08 said:
so youre backing up that the e7 should sound like a 1000$ in other words, your basic 50-100$ dac is the same as all the priced 1000+?  im kinda confused by your post Ue.  sorry its been a long week for me. 
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Read all the posts by the other posters here. They already said it for me.
 
 
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 6:23 PM Post #22 of 373


Quote:
caracara08 said:
well guess im a fool then, because i did notice a difference between my W4S DAC1 and my y2.  i noticed less, if any, difference between my dacmagic and my y2. 
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Hope that means your W4S Dac1 sounds better than the Dmagic and the y2.
 
It probably depends on your hearing acuity and your transducers.
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 7:31 PM Post #25 of 373
guys seriously the op is right. my fiio e7 makes no noticeable difference vs my on board audio chip set on my cheap $600 toshiba laptop.
be honest though i thought i heard more bass but i think it was placebo effect. i would assume on board really isn't that bad considering how much it cost to get a dac/external sound card and receive no benefit. every simple source with the exception of my ipod classic which sounds bad. all sound very similar if not they sound the same.
 
you can disagree with me all you want but i noticed no difference between the 2.
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 8:22 PM Post #26 of 373
What I feel funny is hearing no difference between some random FiiO DACs (don't even know what it is...) and integrated laptop sound cards means all DACs would sound the same :rolleyes:
Or should I say the FiiO DACs are just as crappy as those lappy sound cards so they will sound the same? :rolleyes: How about making that assertion when you have more experience with more reowned gears?
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 8:28 PM Post #27 of 373
I won't disagree...if someone says they hear a difference or not.  Who am I to say what you hear...
 
If you can't hear a difference then great, thats less gear you need to buy to be satisfied and more money you have for music.
 
 
Enjoy!!!
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 9:01 PM Post #28 of 373


Quote:
dynobot said:
Well we know how that goes.....
 
Threads like this are all over the inernet, nothing new.
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The interweb also gives us access to the results of numerous DBTs where components cannnot be distinguished by sound alone, and some where they can, it is easy to kid yourself into thinking that you hear a difference when you know something has changed and where driven by expectations due to appearance, price, reputation, peer opinions and so on, that is not an insult, that is just being human , human psychology has always fascinated me , and while I baulk at allowing my undergraduates to cite Wikipedia it does host a rather nice list of cognitve biases, we are often far less rational than we think....
 
Jun 26, 2011 at 9:10 PM Post #29 of 373

I don't care about DBT....I only care about what my ears can or can not hear.
 
Even if its pure placebo, if I hear it every time....let me be happy with my placebo.
 
Reading a DBT study is again polluting the test because the very act of reading it might change perception.  There is no way out of the Rabbit hole.
 
Quote:
nick_charles said:
The interweb also gives us access to the results of numerous DBTs where components cannnot be distinguished by sound alone, and some where they can, it is easy to kid yourself into thinking that you hear a difference when you know something has changed and where driven by expectations due to appearance, price, reputation, peer opinions and so on, that is not an insult, that is just being human , human psychology has always fascinated me , and while I baulk at allowing my undergraduates to cite Wikipedia it does host a rather nice list of cognitve biases, we are often far less rational than we think....
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Jun 26, 2011 at 9:16 PM Post #30 of 373
Code:
dynobot said:
It probably depends on your hearing acuity and your transducers.
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Maybe the two DACs have slightly different line levels. Listeners often mistake "slightly louder" for "better sound".
 
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