HOW DOES A PERFECT DAC ANALOG SIGNAL LOOK DIFFERENT THAN A CHEAP DAC

[cjf]

There are many measured tests of high dollar dacs and cheap dacs on the web that one could compare against in an objective manor. Stereophile's website would probably be the best place to look first assuming the person comparing knows what the various measurements mean.

 

I think some of the biggest objective differences lie in the measurements that show bits of resolution, channel separation, jitter, bandwidth and noise measurements between the various price points.

 

Then you need to consider what some say are the most important differences which are all subjective in nature between the various products. I'm a firm believer that one wont hear the big differences between the cheap and good products until they have all their other supporting gear at a level where such differences can be noticed. It will all sound more or less the same until then.

 

A disappointing outcome should be of no supprise when placing a $1K DAC into a $50K system and vise versa when placing a $50K DAC into a $1K system.

[cjf]

4 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

I am not sure i buy this...i have gone to a few audio shows listening to 20K to 300K systems, and the dac seemed little do with any of the systems overall sound.  I heard some great systems where they used a media server with embedded dac, some using cheap dacs where the speakers and amp made all the difference....i was like, really you are using that cheap dac and getting that sound.... (btw i really love the sound of focal, ess, and atc speakers).

The only way to really tell is using your own gear that you are already intimately familiar with. Borrow a $50K DAC for a month and plop it inline. Assuming the existing gear already in place is of sufficient capability you may be impressed or maybe you wont but that decision cant be made until after you plop your own DAC back inline and listen again for another month to find out if anything is missing.