We spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the best quality dac or the best dac that we can afford, someday hoping to get the money to upgrade to something even better. What constitutes the very best dac? is it a tube dac? a solid state dac? I've tried many dacs at many prices all below $1000.00. In fact I have yet another DAC on the way.
Some people want opamps with the dac. I personally prefer no amps at all in my Dac. I've tried Dacs with Burr Brown chips, ESS chips, Wolfson chips and coon a Dac with a Cirrus Logic chip. Now I don't know much about Asynchronous USB, or jitter control or the capacitors etc. I'm busy with many other aspects of life and dont have the time or inclination to delve deep into the abyss that seems to constitute these matters and more.
I just want to know what you think makes a dac better or worse than others. I'm concerned that many of us spend way too much money chasing the idea of an ultimate dac. I think we also succumb to the law of diminishing returns in many cases. For example. I see reports that the GF tubedac-11 outperforms the Yulong d18. Then I see that the D18 is as good was a W4S dac-2.
So Head-Fiers lets here the reasoning behind this persuit that has gripped so many of us so tightly.
