All DAC's sound the same. - Page 5  

While I would agree with the last remark I can not really see why are you insisting that a DAC should enhance or improve sound quality? I don't remember reading such statements here, at least I don't suppose they are very popular..

Let a DAC do its job and faithfully reproduce the digital into analog. Cheap (~100$) converters  are still quite far from most 1k$ devices and you should not have problems in distinguishing them in blind tests if your other equipment is resolving enough.

Wonderful here's where I get into a huge argument. If you look into how DAC's work you're right they just convert digital to analog BUT that's only half the story. The idea behind a better DAC is finding a DAC that converts all that digital information in it's entirety all the while without adding any distortion to the signal. The better it reads that signal in it's entirety WITHOUT creating distortion while it's converting it the better the signal that gets fed into your amp. We can argue all night long and get into details such as distortion levels, jitter levels, cables (I'm not a believer of cables for small computer headphone rigs by the way), discreet op amp use on gear etc and it won't matter because in the end if you've made up your mind there's really nothing more I can say to make you change your mind. This is an open forum and I'm simply posting my two cents and that's all I'm doing. In the end you do what you want it doesn't matter to me and it shouldn't matter to you what I think or say.

I have listened to different equipment and I have heard differences in sound. Were they night and day? For the most part no they weren't. Heck if you really want to put your money where your mouth is I dare you to try an interesting experiment. Get your hands on 2 or 3 different DAC's and pair them with 2 or 3 different amps and over the next few months mix and match them and see if you notice a difference. Trust me once your brain has gotten used to a certain rigs signature for a month and you change it around you will notice differences. You really want to mix it up try this take 2 or 3 different headphones of mid hifi quality and take notes on how they react to each different configuration of your rig. While we're at it why stop there? Take different genres of music and mix and match them with your mixed and matched rigs and see how the songs sound and which headphone sound best with which genre on which rig.

You really want to get crazy try mixing and matching gear with a full blown stereo driving good speakers. I guarantee you with good speakers every little add on in the chain will bring different nuances to the sound. If you really want to go insane try moving that same stereo from one room to another and play with the positioning of the speakers. Guess what, you'll find that those same speakers that sounded great in one room now sound like utter crud in another room simply because of the acoustics of the room. Now take those speakers away and add a completely new set of speakers and marvel how good they sound. Now take the whole stereo back into the original room with these new speakers and sit back in astonishment because these new speakers now sound like utter crud in the original room the first speakers were in. Take away the preamp add a new one see what that yields in the sonic signature in the original room with the new speakers. Let's go really nuts and throw in some tubes. Why limit ourselves to solid state? Heck while we're playing with tubes lets bring in a Woo Audio amp for our headphone rig and thicken up the sound and see how it does with our different DAC's then lets mix and match it with our different headphones. Since we're taking notes let's mix it up even more and roll different types of tubes into our Woo and see how it reacts to our DAC's in relation to our headphones. Why stop there let's just get rid of the original stereo tubes we originally played with and just plug the Woo amp directly into our stereo and really do some experimenting with our headphones. Let's not stop there lets throw in a honest to goodness old school turntable. According to many people who are younger then me a CD can't be beat in audio but considering I grew up listening to vinyl as a teen I beg to differ and many others here would agree with me. Now lets go out and bring in different records recorded during different eras. Why stop there now let's experiment with different cartridge types on our turntable and see what that yields with speaker A vs speaker B and while we're at it lets have a listen on our Woo amp and see how that sounds and compare it to our other headphone rig amps. Since we're playing with vinyl lets yank the turntable from our stereo and mate it with our rig and play mix and match over the next few weeks. Hope you're not getting dizzy because I've only scratched the surface on manipulating sound signatures with different gear.

Where am I going with all this? All I'm trying to point out is in this sort of hobby most people are looking for a specific sonic signature that's pleasant to their specific tastes which can be achieved in a myriad of ways. Whats pleasant to one person can sound like utter crud to another. What one person perceives as a worthwhile difference another person won't because they're not looking for the same kind of sonic signature or they simply refuse to spend that amount of money to get that little nuance in their music. Most of us here aren't here to collect gear we're here to try and find information and experiment with it in order to find that specific sound that will make the music we love sound almost perfect to our brains. You're here saying a good DAC doesn't matter well alright then fair enough you're entitled to your opinion. I'm not disputing your ears you've simply found a good enough sound from your onboard audio. Congratulations your journey has come to an end you've found a setup that makes you happy and I'm happy for you. The fact you seem to overlook though is others on here haven't and we're still looking for that sound and the gear we're experimenting with makes a difference in what we hear. If it doesn't make a difference to you well fair enough your entitled to your opinion and your opinion is respected even though you and me disagree. I do ask though that you not be outraged defensive or snooty when others voice their opinion. Other people are entitled to their opinion just like you're entitled to yours. That is the idea behind an open forum isn't it?

Bless \m/