Brewmaster
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2006
- Posts
- 315
- Likes
- 2
Hi,
I've been trying to decide if a source upgrade is necessary and have been watching the "computer as source" forum for some time.
I've never been more confused about an upgrade in my life. I think a lot of people are in the same boat given the number of "which DAC should I buy?" threads.
It seems as if there are fewer people that have heard many DAC's vs. the number of people that have heard different headphones or amps. It also seems that there are a lot of DAC's given how small the market is for these kinds of products. I think there are also a lot of people, myself included, that wonder if upgrading this component will make a big difference.
I know when I bought my AKG 701's it was very clear that an upgrade of amplification would make a big difference... and it did (DV336i).
I still haven't been able to figure out if upgrading the Chaintech 710 to something else is worth it... If external is better than internal... Will a $600 external DAC be better than a very good $200 sound card?
I'm just reluctant to go down this path ($$$) as there doesn't seem to be much solid information that upgrading the source makes a significant difference unless you are coming from something horrible (like onboard, Audigy, Audigy 2). There also seems to be big fan bases for some of the DAC's like Zhalou, 0404 USB, Keyces, but you see tons of these in the FS forums which makes me question if many people are unhappy with them and never really post about it.
Perhpas I just have to jump in, but i'm a little reluctant on this one.
I've been trying to decide if a source upgrade is necessary and have been watching the "computer as source" forum for some time.
I've never been more confused about an upgrade in my life. I think a lot of people are in the same boat given the number of "which DAC should I buy?" threads.
It seems as if there are fewer people that have heard many DAC's vs. the number of people that have heard different headphones or amps. It also seems that there are a lot of DAC's given how small the market is for these kinds of products. I think there are also a lot of people, myself included, that wonder if upgrading this component will make a big difference.
I know when I bought my AKG 701's it was very clear that an upgrade of amplification would make a big difference... and it did (DV336i).
I still haven't been able to figure out if upgrading the Chaintech 710 to something else is worth it... If external is better than internal... Will a $600 external DAC be better than a very good $200 sound card?
I'm just reluctant to go down this path ($$$) as there doesn't seem to be much solid information that upgrading the source makes a significant difference unless you are coming from something horrible (like onboard, Audigy, Audigy 2). There also seems to be big fan bases for some of the DAC's like Zhalou, 0404 USB, Keyces, but you see tons of these in the FS forums which makes me question if many people are unhappy with them and never really post about it.
Perhpas I just have to jump in, but i'm a little reluctant on this one.