[DJJEZ]

Dacs matter more the higher up in headphones and amps you go. With a $500 setup sure the differences will be smaller but with a TOTL setup they make a substantial difference and the differences are much easier to discern.

 

[Contrails]

Unless there have been controlled blind tests conducted to prove the theory that DACs make a difference...

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/dig...blind-test-audible-difference-whatsoever.html

The differences we hear are more likely 'Filters' or sometimes lack of employed in the chain.

 

[cwoo]

Those who say DACs sound different listen with their eyes and not with their ears. They never done a proper volume matched double blind test.

And so the circle is round again.

Um, this has been done thousands of times...

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/new-schiit-yggdrasil-blind-listening-comparison-r1045/
https://audio-head.com/review-schiit-yggdrasil-og-vs-less-is-more-vs-more-is-less/

Here are two recent double blind ABX tests of the 3 Schiit Yggy Models by audio reviewers.

I have also done double blind ABX tests of DACs and its very easy to tell the difference between DACs. I would assume the rest of your gear would need to be good enough to help discern the differences, but also not really... it is pretty obvious for the most part.

And its up to you to decide if its worth it for you to buy a DAC or not, but there is no denying that DACs use different technologies, measure differently, and sound different.

 

[sajunky]

I would assume the rest of your gear would need to be good enough to help discern the differences, but also not really... it is pretty obvious for the most part.

It means that your downstream components have achieved a required transparency level to hear a difference. Downstream components are important. Take by example a good R2R DAC and feed your headphones with nested loopback HPA like THX789 or Topping new series. While these amps work well with Delta-Sigma, where sound is already noise shaped and smoothed out, such combination is not good for R2R decoder, especially in NOS mode. Now it comes to the source material. If your music of choice carries natural properties of instruments you may still hear differences but your evaluation of a DAC will be fundamentally flawed. For EDM music type in the same situation all DACs may sound the same.

 

[FYFL]

Food for thought about ABX “blind test”:
https://positive-feedback.com/Issue56/abx.htm

 

[Deolum]

Dacs matter more the higher up in headphones and amps you go. With a $500 setup sure the differences will be smaller but with a TOTL setup they make a substantial difference and the differences are much easier to discern.

Can't agree with that at all. Going higher up means getting better gear and that has nothing to do with going up in price.

 

[Contrails]

I shall eat my words. Just changed DACs and wow. The new Dac is a big upgrade. The sound is preferable over direct USB than I2S ( via Singxer su-1) as well.

 

[abheybir]

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?

Long story shory: its the synergy of the chain and one's taste in sq that matters, nothing else doesn't.

 

[FYFL]

I shall eat my words. Just changed DACs and wow. The new Dac is a big upgrade. The sound is preferable over direct USB than I2S ( via Singxer su-1) as well.

Don't worry and brace yourself. You'll still be told that you're probably a victim of psychoacoustics and subconscious biases.

 

[sajunky]

Don't worry and brace yourself. You'll still be told that you're probably a victim of psychoacoustics and subconscious biases.

There is no need, they are busted already. Now is a time to sit down and enjoy music.

 

[FYFL]

There is no need, they are busted already. Now is a time to sit down and enjoy music.

You got that right. Enjoy yourself and your music in anyway you like. And let others obsessed about numbers.

 

[TYATYA]

Dac filter or digital filter is a thing of process inside the dac.
So, a dac is fixed filter A and a dac with selectable filter, or fixed filter B will sounds not the same.

 

[bobelton]

I would add that you don’t even have to go all the way up the high end chain to hear a difference. I upgraded my pc source dac to a schiit modi and could tell an audible difference. Then I upgraded to a bifrost 2 and still heard audible improvements I found worth the money. The big reveal for me was living with the bifrost for a while and then trying out a lower end dac just to see if I could hear a difference and after being used to the bifrost sound, losing it was even more dramatic than getting it in the first place.

 

[bobelton]

accidental double post.

 

[Deolum]

Honstely i'm since 6 years in this hobby and i still don't know if dacs really make a difference or if its just bias.