[calist3r]

...people need to buy a 500$ CLAS or a 799$ Fostex to bypass it?
 
Is the iPod's DAC not good enough for big portable amps like the Continental or Lisa3?
 
Has anyone here make any comparisons yet?
 
 

 

[NA Blur]

The DAC inside the upper tier iPod products is actually quite musical and is my general reference for testing a setup.  There have been many demonstrations showing that the DAC can produce very pleasant results and convince audiences consisting of both audio experts and general audio neophytes that they are listening to a $15k+ setup when it is a more $1k setup running off of an iPod DAC playing uncompressed audio.

A good DAC needs to have really low harmonic distortion, run stable without glitching or dropping the signal, and have a high signal to noise ratio.  Jitter should also be included when choosing a DAC, but is not always measured at the factory.

The DAC in most iPod touches is the respectable Wolfson chip.  For me it came down to the amp and headphones more than the DAC, but of course I did choose a decent enough DAC that I was not expecting issues.  My more expensive DAC chips and implementations are much more quiet.
 
Have you done a direct A/B comparison using two different DAC chips / devices?  Using the same amp to output the AC signal to your headphones swap between the iPod and another DAC and report back what you hear.  Any differences?
 
 

 

[calist3r]

I'd love to try A/B ing myself but I have sold my RX so I don't have any amps with me to conduct a proper testing.

 

[Citan]

What is a "musical DAC?"

 

[Timestretch]

Quote:

What is a "musical DAC?"

I wonder this myself. I prefer my DAC to have the flattest possible frequency response with the least distortion possible. I'm content to let the music and the manner of its recording and mastering bring its own musicality to the table. 

 

[AnakChan]

Thought I'd put in my 2 yen worth. I have the VentureCraft Go-DAP 4.0, CLAS, and at one stage the HP-P1 too. My portable amps being the SR-71B & the Pico Slim.
 
At least to me, to answer the OPs question really depends on a variety of factors. And in my case it seems to start from the headphones. With my V-Moda M-80, it hardly needs any intermediate components between the source & it. That's not to say it doesn't make a difference but the difference is slight that (at least to me), isn't worth the $500-$800 components in between (NB: the Fostex doesn't cost $799 BTW).
 
On the other hand my Ultrasone Ed8LE and Unique Melody SE530x8 seems to benefit from some component in-between my source and the headphones/IEM. And at least to me, the difference is big enough to justify the cost of the component. The night 'n day difference to me is big enough that cr@ppy music that I normally wouldn't listen to would pique my interest - I find myself even enjoying listening to '80s Eurotrash!
 
As to -which- component matters the most, I found the amps made the biggest difference in terms of immediate deeper bass extensions, or improved clarity in the trebles, and somewhat wider soundstage. the DACs I have OTOH seem to provide a smaller but noticeable improvement in the resolution and detail (and further tightness in the bass). For some tracks, they sound "smoother" somewhat too.
 
So in summary, to me good portable amps have provided the immediate bang for the buck. As for the DACs, the improvements seem somewhat less of an impact. Having said that, once I've heard "better", I've almost always used an external DAC. But again, all this really depends on what headphone I'm using in the first place.
 
P.S. I have an old iPod Photo. It's not iModded (yet?) but sounds pretty good with just a LOD/SR-71B...not that I could attach my CLAS to it anyway.

 

[cvision123]

Thought I'd put in my 2 yen worth. I have the VentureCraft Go-DAP 4.0, CLAS, and at one stage the HP-P1 too. My portable amps being the SR-71B & the Pico Slim.

At least to me, to answer the OPs question really depends on a variety of factors. And in my case it seems to start from the headphones. With my V-Moda M-80, it hardly needs any intermediate components between the source & it. That's not to say it doesn't make a difference but the difference is slight that (at least to me), isn't worth the $500-$800 components in between (NB: the Fostex doesn't cost $799 BTW).

On the other hand my Ultrasone Ed8LE and Unique Melody SE530x8 seems to benefit from some component in-between my source and the headphones/IEM. And at least to me, the difference is big enough to justify the cost of the component. The night 'n day difference to me is big enough that cr@ppy music that I normally wouldn't listen to would pique my interest - I find myself even enjoying listening to '80s Eurotrash!

As to -which- component matters the most, I found the amps made the biggest difference in terms of immediate deeper bass extensions, or improved clarity in the trebles, and somewhat wider soundstage. the DACs I have OTOH seem to provide a smaller but noticeable improvement in the resolution and detail (and further tightness in the bass). For some tracks, they sound "smoother" somewhat too.

So in summary, to me good portable amps have provided the immediate bang for the buck. As for the DACs, the improvements seem somewhat less of an impact. Having said that, once I've heard "better", I've almost always used an external DAC. But again, all this really depends on what headphone I'm using in the first place.

P.S. I have an old iPod Photo. It's not iModded (yet?) but sounds pretty good with just a LOD/SR-71B...not that I could attach my CLAS to it anyway.

Thanks a lot for your "2 yen". I'm also kind of curious about the improvement that i can have by taking the digital data out from the iPod feeding to an external Dac.

 

[lostid]

It all comes down to synergy, quality of digital contents and personal taste for the sound. What sounds excellent to others may sound mediocre to you.
 
What I believe is you do NOT have to spend tons of $'s to get what you like to enjoy your music.

 

[TemplarUK]

Have to agree with lostid, o.k I have 3 different iPod nano's (1st, 4th and 6th gen) I prefer 1st gen, has a Wolfsen DAC but it's not just about the DAC, it's the design and how you drive the DAC, etc to get the most out of it. I would imagine Apple are striving for style, etc, let's face it, they have a large market share...I improved the SQ buy using LOD and a simple Fiio E5 and 6 amp with some decent IEM's. But if you move upto to ipod classic, you will get a better SQ. Question is money...I try to everything on the smallest budget possible (well let's face it, this stuff can become your own personal crack habit..LOL) to see how I can step through improvements, keeping everything apples for apples (excuse the pun) you cannot compare a Ibasso + Shure Se535 to Ipod nano with standard buds.

 

[headfinoob]

Is it me or does the 160gb iPod Classic sound like crap?

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[wkamil]

Neither...

 

[ostewart]

160gb Classic 7G sounds great to me, compared to 6G and 5.5G.