Airpulse A300 with external DAC?

[audiojack]

Hello! I tried the SMSL d6s external DAC on the Airpulse A300 (active speakers) XLR input and to my ears it sounded basically identical?! And what surprises me most is that the treble and bass knobs on the back of the speakers still function and change the sound with external dac on the XLR input? Because of these findings it seems like the A300 XLR input signal still passes through the internal A300 DAC and is still processed by the A300 DAC? In amazon reviews of the A300 some mention that using an external dac gave them more detailed sound? From the newest Airpulse A300pro I know that bass and treble settings don't function in balanced mode.

I went through some filter presets on the SMSL D6S and not much difference in sound.
How to make sure if this is the case?

 

[staticV3]

The product page is pretty clear that the A300 uses a DSP crossover, meaning that no external DAC can improve fidelity over using the digital input.

I'm not surprised that someone on Amazon perceived more detail with a an external DAC though.

Confirmation/Expectation bias and sunk cost fallacy will do that.

Lastly, different Nyquist filters have a very, very small impact on sound quality.

In most cases, it is expected that you can't hear a difference.

 

[audiojack]

Thank you.

I'm not surprised that someone on Amazon perceived more detail with a an external DAC though.

Confirmation/Expectation bias and sunk cost fallacy will do that.

Lol yeah I thought so too.