upstateguy
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2004
- Posts
- 4,085
- Likes
- 182
See I recently replaced my old non USB benchmark dac1 with an rme adi2 dac and I thoroughly tested both (not blind) with different headphones while volume matching and I could not tell them apart one bit. I have an amp with dual inputs and an input switch which allows me to switch between the two DACs instantly so I found it worthwhile to test things out. I used a USB to SPDIF interface on the DAC1, and USB out on the RME. This is with stock settings on both units, no resampling.
I'm a little less inclined now to believe that DACs sound different. I think if the implementation is sound, they'll sound the same. I'll keep the RME because I'm growing to really like the features and EQ capabilities, but from a sound quality perspective it made no difference.
I did a similar test with cables years ago and now, aside from a couple of expensive pairs I still have, I only buy cheap monoprice cables which to my ears, make no difference in sound.
Headphones I am of the same mind, I've never noticed any of the headphones I own changing, sound wise, after many hours of use. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen as my ear could be adapting, who knows. I recently bought a pair of hd6XXs which supposedly sound dramatically different after hundreds of hours, so we'll see. I made note of my first impressions on it so I have something to reference to in the future.
Can we agree that similar circuit implementations using the same bitrate and sampling techniques like oversampling or upsampling might sound similar but different circuit implementations using using different bitrates and different sampling techniques might not sound the same?
If different circuit implementations didn't sound different, why did Stello include an upsampling switch and say this about it in the DA100 manual?
From the PDF of the DA100 manual:
"UPSAMPLE : You can select either 192kHz/24 Bit upsampling or Bypass. ‘BYPASS’ means the digital output is exactly same as the digital input (up to 96kHz/24 Bit). You should be the judge to decide which mode is better because the musicality and nuance vary depending on the recording status of the sources.
Generally, we recommend 192 upsampling for most of the playback."