netdog
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2008
- Posts
- 189
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- 33
While I need to upgrade my speakers from the current BW 685s, my Rega Brio-R is good, and almost all my files are CDs ripped into Apple Lossless. So really the big weak link in the chain would seem to be from the Airport Express, served by AirPlay, via analog to amplifier as a stopgap.
As a guitar player, I am pretty sensitive to sound. I look long and hard to find just the right guitars and amps to suit me but when I find them, boy, it's like their alive.
Now I realize that my speakers are pretty budget-minded, but when I listen to my hifi, I hear a bottom end that lacks much punch, and a top end that is kind of schmooshed and fizzy, like playing a guitar through a mediocre pedal. I am assuming that even the speakers I have can do better than this.
So once I get a DAC, probably to be fed by USB on my Mini rather than via the AE's optical, am I going to hear a big difference? Will the bass become much tighter? The highs clearer with more ring than fizz? Or is this really just the nature of CDs, compressed sound at 16 bit with a 44.1k sample rate?
At this point, having ripped my CDs several years ago but never having changed my DAC, I've gotten a bit used to the idea that recorded music doesn't sound much like real music. Is a DAC going to significantly change that? I know my speakers could be better, but honestly, they're not the worst either.
As a guitar player, I am pretty sensitive to sound. I look long and hard to find just the right guitars and amps to suit me but when I find them, boy, it's like their alive.
Now I realize that my speakers are pretty budget-minded, but when I listen to my hifi, I hear a bottom end that lacks much punch, and a top end that is kind of schmooshed and fizzy, like playing a guitar through a mediocre pedal. I am assuming that even the speakers I have can do better than this.
So once I get a DAC, probably to be fed by USB on my Mini rather than via the AE's optical, am I going to hear a big difference? Will the bass become much tighter? The highs clearer with more ring than fizz? Or is this really just the nature of CDs, compressed sound at 16 bit with a 44.1k sample rate?
At this point, having ripped my CDs several years ago but never having changed my DAC, I've gotten a bit used to the idea that recorded music doesn't sound much like real music. Is a DAC going to significantly change that? I know my speakers could be better, but honestly, they're not the worst either.
