[Halonoonan]

Possibly a dumb question, but if your are using a DAP, amp and DAC would the quality of the DAP make any difference! I would think that it wouldn't since you are bypassing the DAPs internal amo and DAC. Am I missing something or would a simple San Disk sound pretty much the same as a high end DAP if the amp and dac are the same?
Thanks.

 

[billybob_jcv]

In the land of summit-fi, everything matters. You've seen the "audiophile" grade USB, digital coax and fiber cables, right? I'm sure that someone would say that the timing of the digital signal output by the DAP does matter and therefore, the DAP matters. And, of course, we also can't forget about other effects like crosstalk and EMI on the digital signal that could mess with the signal timing. In a practical sense? You are probably right - as long as the bits can get from the DAP to the DAC within specs, the DAC can take it from there. Of course, there *are* summit-fi items even in the digital domain - like the super-stable rubidium atomic clocks that can be used to provide the reference timing signals with accuracy down below a billionth of a second. http://www.antelopeaudio.com/en/products/10M-atomic-clock