I think I now understand why so many reviews for audio gear -- DACs in particular -- differ from what I experience in practice.
I am not talking about measuring specs, but subjective opinions on how a device makes a system sound. A number of on-line reviewers have posted the discs they test with and many are using the same sort of music, namely pieces for small groups of instruments and perhaps solo vocalists. (Jazz combos, singer/songwriter stuff, and some types of pop). It seems to me that it's hard for this kind of material to sound bad on any system. The instruments can be widely separated and spread out. If you mic close the the singer or instrument, you can get lots of subtle and interesting details that would be lost if there were more performers or recorded from further away.
What I usually want to know is what device sounds like when it is playing an opera or symphony orchestra -- i.e. the type of piece where all the instruments are usually meant to blend together and you want to hear the ambiance of the hall or theater. I think any equipment capable of doing justice to that type of material should be able to handle just about anything. But I could be wrong about this. When comparing the output of the DAC in my entry-level Denon CD player to the one built into my Emotiva preamp, I found that one handled the former sound source well and the other the latter. (I don't remember which was which. I bypassed the problem by connecting the optical output of the CD player to my Loxjie D30, which sounded better than either of them, regardless of what I was playing).
I find that both the Loxjie D30 and D40 (not the D40 Pro) sound better than the alternatives currently available to me, but both are lacking due to a noticable ringing that can sometimes be heard in the extreme higher frequencies. Also some occassional muddiness in the midrange. (Specifically, they seem to be lowering the volume of some ranges to artifically creat depth, so that they sound further away from the listener. It doesn't always work, though. For example, when listening to the score from a Broadway musical, the brass comes in to give some additional power and weight to a number, but it disappoints because it sounds softer than the piano or woodwinds).
I am not talking about measuring specs, but subjective opinions on how a device makes a system sound. A number of on-line reviewers have posted the discs they test with and many are using the same sort of music, namely pieces for small groups of instruments and perhaps solo vocalists. (Jazz combos, singer/songwriter stuff, and some types of pop). It seems to me that it's hard for this kind of material to sound bad on any system. The instruments can be widely separated and spread out. If you mic close the the singer or instrument, you can get lots of subtle and interesting details that would be lost if there were more performers or recorded from further away.
What I usually want to know is what device sounds like when it is playing an opera or symphony orchestra -- i.e. the type of piece where all the instruments are usually meant to blend together and you want to hear the ambiance of the hall or theater. I think any equipment capable of doing justice to that type of material should be able to handle just about anything. But I could be wrong about this. When comparing the output of the DAC in my entry-level Denon CD player to the one built into my Emotiva preamp, I found that one handled the former sound source well and the other the latter. (I don't remember which was which. I bypassed the problem by connecting the optical output of the CD player to my Loxjie D30, which sounded better than either of them, regardless of what I was playing).
I find that both the Loxjie D30 and D40 (not the D40 Pro) sound better than the alternatives currently available to me, but both are lacking due to a noticable ringing that can sometimes be heard in the extreme higher frequencies. Also some occassional muddiness in the midrange. (Specifically, they seem to be lowering the volume of some ranges to artifically creat depth, so that they sound further away from the listener. It doesn't always work, though. For example, when listening to the score from a Broadway musical, the brass comes in to give some additional power and weight to a number, but it disappoints because it sounds softer than the piano or woodwinds).
It gets pretty-darn boring when everything sounds alike in a proper scientific blind listening test. The same thing likely applies to your "experience".
