Hi, I have a Topping D50 III DAC and have just ordered a used Fiio K11 R2R DAC. I have previously not heard a difference between DACs, in the form of my D50, a Qudelix 5k, the Wiim Ultra internal and a Geshelli J2 and am of the opinion that there is no audible difference if the DACs are well designed and not intentionally coloured. However, I was told in a forum that the reason I don't hear differences is that they all use the same chipset and I would need to hear something like an R2R DAC or an AKM chipset, or FPGA etc, in order to hear all the additional soundstage depth, width, height... weight... BMI? that I am missing with my cheap DACs.
Even though I am not a believer, I do like to confirm things myself and and the K11 R2R is so cheap that I figured why not test for fun and sell it on. I want to check the process for a good blind test. My setup will be as follows:
My outline plan for the process is as follows:
It will probably be a week or two before I can conduct the testing and my wife couldn't give a toss about audio so I might need to sub in a friend instead if she really isn't interested
Even though I am not a believer, I do like to confirm things myself and and the K11 R2R is so cheap that I figured why not test for fun and sell it on. I want to check the process for a good blind test. My setup will be as follows:
- K11 R2R using RCA out into a remote control RCA switching box.
- D50 III using RCA out into RCA switching box (not using balanced out because K11 does not have that, even though shouldn't make a difference).
- Switching box into my Topping A50III amplifier.
- Test headphones (with no EQ) will be HiFiMan Ananda and Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pro.
My outline plan for the process is as follows:
- Power supplied to all devices from the same GAN USB plug and using same USB cables of same length (Amazon Basics).
- Ensure DACs are in base settings with no EQ etc and using same sample / bit rates.
- Same RCA cables will be used with same length (Amazon Basics).
- Play a test tone / white noise and measure / align / record each DAC output voltage at end of RCA cable, using a multimeter.
- Plug both sets of RCA cables into the switching box with use another Amazon Basics RCA cable from the output.
- Measure and confirm same output voltage from the switching box when using each source input (align and record again if needed).
- Connect up to the A50III and use single ended 6.35mm jack (Beyer is not balanced and I want to try both headphones).
- Close cabinet doors to hide all equipment and sit facing away from any equipment / away from eyeline of support crew (wife..)
- Get my wife to assign each DAC input as A or B and draw up an order of testing (20 samples, e.g. A-A-A-B-A-B-B-A-A-B-B etc)?
- She will control the remote for the switching box and I will have no sight of any equipment.
- I will guess D50 or K11 and she will record it on the sheet. I plan to repeat the test 3 times using for the Ananda, and 3 times for the DT1990, maybe a day apart.
It will probably be a week or two before I can conduct the testing and my wife couldn't give a toss about audio so I might need to sub in a friend instead if she really isn't interested