[xwfalcon]

Budget 3500 usd
 
I am looking at purchasing a DAC after i get an amp to drive my Hifiman HE-6 and some diy 3 way speakers im building using scan speak drivers .The amp im 70 to 90 percent sure im getting is an Audio GD Master 10 .
 
I listen to lot of thrash metal, heavy metal ,rock n roll all they way back to 50s to present and some pop .
 
The dac ive been looking at are Metrum Acoustic Hex ,Audio GD Master 7 ,Schitt Audio Yggdrasil and Auralic Vega .
 
Would like advice on which one of these or another dac would be a good choice for my setup and the music i listen to im in Australia and would like to buy local if i can .

 

[Jeff Y]

Yggy is probably the way to go no matter what setup or music you've got if one can afford one. I wish I could have had more desk space and gotten that instead of my Hugo but oh well... too late.

 

[inthere]

I have several high end pro audio interfaces including thee Metric Halo ULN-8 ($5995 when i bought it) and the Prism Orrpheus (($5299). There was a huge 50,000+ reply thread on the pro audio forums(Gearslutz) about the superior DAC quality of the high end interfaces vs low end. Various tests were taken and no one could audibly discern the differences. We then went to null testing, which is when you render files from each interface. If the files are different, you hear them. If they null, you'll hear nothing. If they null, that also means the files are completely identical.

EVERYTHING nulled.



If you're converting digital to analog, there is no difference in quality.

What I'm saying is before you buy a high end DAC, don't listen to the salesman, have him hook it up to an amp and test it against a $150 Schiit Modi.

Use the savings on another amp or headphones

 

[xwfalcon]

  Yggy is probably the way to go no matter what setup or music you've got if one can afford one. I wish I could have had more desk space and gotten that instead of my Hugo but oh well... too late.

Thanks ive read good stuff on yggy except having to leave it on all the time .
 
.

I have several high end pro audio interfaces including thee Metric Halo ULN-8 ($5995 when i bought it) and the Prism Orrpheus (($5299). There was a huge 50,000+ reply thread on the pro audio forums(Gearslutz) about the superior DAC quality of the high end interfaces vs low end. Various tests were taken and no one could audibly discern the differences. We then went to null testing, which is when you render files from each interface. If the files are different, you hear them. If they null, you'll hear nothing. If they null, that also means the files are completely identical.

EVERYTHING nulled.



If you're converting digital to analog, there is no difference in quality.

What I'm saying is before you buy a high end DAC, don't listen to the salesman, have him hook it up to an amp and test it against a $150 Schiit Modi.

Use the savings on another amp or headphones

I would like to know why people say different dac chips and dacs have different sound signatures if there is no difference .

 

[Jeff Y]

DACs and how they are made makes a BIG difference imo.
R2R, Delta-Sigma, FPGA, blah blah blah and Sabre, ESS, AKM, and different dac chips all make a difference.
Also important are the power supply, the analog stage, and more.
But YMMV since there are many who say the exact opposite from what I believe.

 

[cel4145]

I would like to know why people say different dac chips and dacs have different sound signatures if there is no difference .

Because there are all kinds of reasons why comparative sighted listening tests of DACs are flawed. See this thread in the Sound Science forum: http://www.head-fi.org/t/771254/testing-claims-about-the-sound-of-different-dacs. You can ask additional questions there. I would also recommend reading this specific post: http://www.head-fi.org/t/771254/testing-claims-about-the-sound-of-different-dacs#post_11682337

 

[ProtegeManiac]

.
I would like to know why people say different dac chips and dacs have different sound signatures if there is no difference .

 

The chips themselves have variances but barely measurable if you're comparing two good chips, what's left is designing the circuit around them. In the end it's really the analog output stage that colors the sound, and in that particular scenario, what happens is that a few products give this chip a certain rep and then many others later engineer the circuit to conform to it. I tried an older Rega CDP before that was so warm (note I had two pairs of HD600 earpads with me at the time so no matter how many CDPs I went through that day compression of the pads won't be an issue) and Norah Jones sounded like she needed to huff a whole jar of Vick's along with a few shots of Nyquil (also made by Vick's). And some chicken soup while she's at it. AudioGD's older NFB-11 didn't sound anything like that and, quite frankly, none of the other WM8740 DACs and CDPs either.

 

[Kozic]

+1 to saving your $$ on a DAC and putting it into a amp/headphone upgrade.
Just my 2 cents