[yolosauce]

Why are you personally running a D90?

When I bought the Susvara I decided to go fully balanced and I picked the D90 because of how well it measured. If I could reverse time I probably would have settled for a used D70 or the Modius.

 

[driftingbunnies]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Trying to run a TOTL headphone with some of the best measuring/soul sucking gear there is.

 

[WoollyGeezer]

I purchased the D70s and am looking into a Burson Soloist 3x for my arya's.

Is the d70s adequete compared to an r2r dac?
I almost purchased the pegasus over the d70s.

I will eventually upgrade to a susvara/utopia. The local shop has a few utopias on their way and I am planning to demo them within a week or two.

 

[tjl5709]

I read about a lot of people saying that high-end dacs are a waste of money.

If I run a 6000$ headphone with great balanced interconnects, and a 1500$ amplifier with a perfect FLAC file... will a 1000$ DAC be important?

Has anyone actually heard an audible difference? Even if it is 1-2%. Is it the final piece of the puzzle?

I upgraded to a multibit DAC about 4 years ago. It was a revelation for me. It was the first time I felt my digital library (I have ripped all my CD's to FLAC) sounded analog. The resolution, clarity, and unheard detail was astounding.

It's not the final piece, but it is a major part of the chain IMHO.

 

[Redcarmoose]

I upgraded to a multibit DAC about 4 years ago. It was a revelation for me. It was the first time I felt my digital library (I have ripped all my CD's to FLAC) sounded analog. The resolution, clarity, and unheard detail was astounding.

It's not the final piece, but it is a major part of the chain IMHO.

Best post in the thread!

 

[WoollyGeezer]

I upgraded to a multibit DAC about 4 years ago. It was a revelation for me. It was the first time I felt my digital library (I have ripped all my CD's to FLAC) sounded analog. The resolution, clarity, and unheard detail was astounding.

It's not the final piece, but it is a major part of the chain IMHO.

You and many others have convinced me.

I will try the d70s that is arriving on Friday but I am going to order a multibit DAC to compare it and keep the better between the two.

I have been looking at the Magician Pegasus and Gungir. It is in the most I want to spend on the dac (less than 1500)

It will be paired with a Susvara in the future but currently the Arya.

Does anyone have any experience with the two? Or something similar to the price range.

 

[H20Fidelity]

I spend a lot of time on the Internet, been in the hobby since 2012, these varying opinions on whether DACs and amps make a difference depends where/who you ask. Here on Head-fi people are in the 'yes absolutely!" camp but if you head over to Reddits headphone forum they feel differently, and many of their threads come up in search results on Google. Then the measurements side stating everything should be transparent etc.

The real answer to your question is tasting the pudding yourself, come to your own conclusion, not confusion.

 

[Telin]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Trying to run a TOTL headphone with some of the best measuring/soul sucking gear there is.

Sounds like a bitter reaction from someone who got all the money sucked out of him by an uber expensive "audiophile" DAC and the brain no longer can justify the expense.

The real answer to your question is tasting the pudding yourself, come to your own conclusion, not confusion.

Totally agree with this.
The tasting is sadly not as straightforward as it seems. There are 1001 things that can and will change how one perceives sound and how something sounds. That is just the way us humans are wired, nothing to do about that.

 

[driftingbunnies]

Sounds like a bitter reaction from someone who got all the money sucked out of him by an uber expensive "audiophile" DAC and the brain no longer can justify the expense.

Yes, I'm extremely bitter that some of the best minds in this industry have created a product that has improved my system enough for me to pay for it. How dare they create a product that sounds better and costs more.

You spit out all these assumptions yet you don't know me or my experience and come in with an extremely condescending attitude. Please look at yourself in the mirror and stay away from ASR for an extended period of time. You might see that there is more to life than just measurements and talking down to people. If you truly believe that DACs make no difference besides being transparent, you're not going to have a good time here because you'll just be talking to a bunch of crazies.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Yes, I'm extremely bitter that some of the best minds in this industry have created a product that has improved my system enough for me to pay for it. How dare they create a product that sounds better and costs more.

You spit out all these assumptions yet you don't know me or my experience and come in with an extremely condescending attitude. Please look at yourself in the mirror and stay away from ASR for an extended period of time. You might see that there is more to life than just measurements and talking down to people. If you truly believe that DACs make no difference besides being transparent, you're not going to have a good time here because you'll just be talking to a bunch of crazies.

All roads lead to Rome.

 

[FYFL]

I don’t think that debating if differences in DACs are “real” is all that entertaining. There are people with paper sheet and numbers in front of them and than there are ppl with ears and real hands on experience.

I’ll just say this. And this is based on same DAC, same architecture, same everything other than operating system that runs it.
PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC is fully programmable, by means of its FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) core processing engine. This architecture allows every parameter that controls the DirectStream DAC to be configured and tweaked.
Over the years there were three OS “upgrades”. From original “Snowmass”, “Windom” to latest “Sunlight” firmware.
And they ALL sound different.
And NO, it’s not my imagination.
And if that’s the case, wouldn’t be rational to acknowledge that perhaps DACs with different architecture, power supplies, chips, digital clocks and so on, and on, and on, might sound different?
Sure, we’re not talking about huge differences but nevertheless. Differences are there. How much those differences translate to your personal music enjoyment is for you to decide. It’s that simple.

 

[bagwell359]

I upgraded to a multibit DAC about 4 years ago. It was a revelation for me. It was the first time I felt my digital library (I have ripped all my CD's to FLAC) sounded analog. The resolution, clarity, and unheard detail was astounding.

It's not the final piece, but it is a major part of the chain IMHO.

Very like my experiences. In 2016 I decided to go off vinyl if I could find the right DAC. 10+ misses, then viola - Gungnir.

 

[sajunky]

Very like my experiences. In 2016 I decided to go off vinyl if I could find the right DAC. 10+ misses, then viola - Gungnir.

This one below $50, would also satisfy your needs. It served me well on my desk (replacing Topping D30, a device with the best measurements) for one year before I got Audio GD R2R-11. Now serving on the road, being portable and draws a little power from the phone.

A key to the question is what properties you are expecting from music. Do you want sterile (artificially) clean, free of a natural timbre and texture (Apple dongle would serve you well) or you find that for a real music enjoyement and low fatigue these properties are required.

 

[FYFL]

Many “number” oriented “purists” will argue importance of “neutrality/linearity/flat FR etc” and give us example after example why numbers matter. Well, they do, however. Music is fluid art that touches us on personal level and therefor is, ……. exactly that. Personal.
I urge anyone to watch this interview series in a whole (among other writings or interviews with legendary engineers/musicians) but if you can’t, try this short snippet of an interview in which, they touch on “coloration”, early digital era, gear, personal perception, music as an art, personal choices while mixing/mastering and some vinyl comparisons.
If that clip is still too long for you, pass forward to about 6th min. in and then somewhere around 15-16min in mark.

 

[bagwell359]

This one below $50, would also satisfy your needs. It served me well on my desk (replacing Topping D30, a device with the best measurements) for one year before I got Audio GD R2R-11. Now serving on the road, being portable and draws a little power from the phone.

A key to the question is what properties you are expecting from music. Do you want sterile (artificially) clean, free of a natural timbre and texture (Apple dongle would serve you well) or you find that for a real music enjoyement and low fatigue these properties are required.

I like true sound first heard by me at BSO, later on my father's Quad ESL 57, then with my America inspired 3 acoustic guitar troubadors, lots of live jazz and folk. I dislike emphasis on odd order harmonics, early digital, over emphasis on frequencies - like basshead fans go for.

I like multibit DAC"s, not going to go find one in the bargain basement.

Speakers I find a lot of truth in:

Verity Parsifal
M-L CLS z
MG 3.7i
Pro Ac EBS
DQ-10 W ribbons, heavy mods (4 way, low tweeter gone), screen off, drivers vertical (front to back alignment maintained), woof box 90 flip to right, fit wood 'blocks' to woof cabinets to give the right slant when playing, best caps available, new resistors too, build new x-over board. Worth every minute of the 300 hrs it took.