Any audible difference between Topping DX1 (only DAC) and more expensive DACs? For STAX X9000 electrostatics.

[Chuckser]

No it doesn’t, it uses CS4272, not CS43198. They are 15 dB apart in performance.

Oh. Cool. I might just pull the trigger. Thanks for your help.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Almost certainly this:

all placebo?

Almost certainly not this:

I was reading an interview with the Marantz HD-DAC 1 designers, and they were saying the power supply stage is the most difficult to design. Perhaps that explains the lack of tightness in the bass. That wouldn't show up in a single or 32 tone test. Electricity is slippery in the exteme and even under the high voltage conditions spin networks can work against the flow. Intercomponent shunt and intercomponent impedances cause problems outside the DAC chip as you've observed.

 

[solawind]

I was reading an interview with the Marantz HD-DAC 1 designers

interviews like these are just marketing bs.

 

[voodooless]

Perhaps that explains the lack of tightness in the bass. That wouldn't show up in a single or 32 tone test.

Sure it would. It’s a property of frequency response.

Electricity is slippery in the exteme

There is nothing extreme in a DAC, nor anything slippery in electricity..

and even under the high voltage conditions spin networks can work against the flow. Intercomponent shunt and intercomponent impedances cause problems outside the DAC chip as you've observed.

How do you know that this word salad happened in his DAC?

 

[oleg87]

What on Earth is “loose” bass? its a DAC, not a bass drum that needs dampening. Inadequate power supply will cause (measurable) distortion, noise/interference, all the usual things.