Digital Sound Quality

[stunta]

I would add one of the Topping DACs to the mix . Would be fun to see if anyone can hear a difference between a Topping and the RME or Chord in a DBT.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I would add one of the Topping DACs to the mix . Would be fun to see if anyone can hear a difference between a Topping and the RME or Chord in a DBT.

Actually I almost put that in my post. However, in my experience you might, maybe sometimes will get a person ready to spend $10K to at least consider a $2k or $1K device. If you start talking way lower than that you just lose credibility with them.

I really, really, really, like would really, like for Amir to get a top quality ADC, and offer us some music recorded at the outputs of the various DACs so we could listen to it without knowing from whence it came and see if we hear differences. A Chord Dave, RME ADI and Topping would be an excellent starting tri-fecta.

Bravo for your post stunta.

 

[Purité Audio]

To the OP if you really want to improve sound quality , forget passive loudspeakers altogether and look at the new breed of actives.
I guarantee side by side in your room, you will hear a massive improvement, as Cosmic said and for the price of one piece of case engineering .
Keith

 

[svart-hvitt]

Actually I almost put that in my post. However, in my experience you might, maybe sometimes will get a person ready to spend $10K to at least consider a $2k or $1K device. If you start talking way lower than that you just lose credibility with them.

I really, really, really, like would really, like for Amir to get a top quality ADC, and offer us some music recorded at the outputs of the various DACs so we could listen to it without knowing from whence it came and see if we hear differences. A Chord Dave, RME ADI and Topping would be an excellent starting tri-fecta.

Bravo for your post stunta.

For a «true» comparison comes the TrueMatch:

http://stagetec.com/en/audio-routin...ntent&view=article&id=1274&Itemid=217&lang=en

The Stagetec analog to digital converter is the best to my knoøwdge in terms of specs. Little known in audiophile circles, including ASR I believe, but client list is impressive.

Is anything gone through TrueMatch «true»?

 

[mitchco]

Actually I almost put that in my post. However, in my experience you might, maybe sometimes will get a person ready to spend $10K to at least consider a $2k or $1K device. If you start talking way lower than that you just lose credibility with them.

I really, really, really, like would really, like for Amir to get a top quality ADC, and offer us some music recorded at the outputs of the various DACs so we could listen to it without knowing from whence it came and see if we hear differences. A Chord Dave, RME ADI and Topping would be an excellent starting tri-fecta.

Bravo for your post stunta.

The Lynx Hilo is purported to have one of the best ADC's on the market, supported in part by the objective testing as referenced in post 15. All of the measurements I have taken of the Hilo certainly puts it up there, but I am biased as I have owned one since it first came out.

As far as what is audible... Unless the converter is broken or has filtering into the audible range, or a poorly designed and/or implemented analog line output stage, I would be surprised if any of us could hear any difference at all in a DBT. I say that with support from an experiment linked below. I got to about 12 bits of resolution before I could not hear a difference. PM me if you want the answer key after you have listened: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...gital-Audio-–-Bit-Perfect-Audibility-Testing/

 

[svart-hvitt]

The Lynx Hilo is purported to have one of the best ADC's on the market, supported in part by the objective testing as referenced in post 15. All of the measurements I have taken of the Hilo certainly puts it up there, but I am biased as I have owned one since it first came out.

As far as what is audible... Unless the converter is broken or has filtering into the audible range, or a poorly designed and/or implemented analog line output stage, I would be surprised if any of us could hear any difference at all in a DBT. I say that with support from an experiment linked below. I got to about 12 bits of resolution before I could not hear a difference. PM me if you want the answer key after you have listened: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/Fun-With-Digital-Audio-–-Bit-Perfect-Audibility-Testing/

Oh, and I forgot to ask: What’s your DAC?

 

[Sal1950]

Given the quality and feature set the DACs reviewed on ASR have, it makes little sense to spend more than $1000 USD on a consumer level DAC.

Agreed.
If preamp like functions, remote, etc are important you might stretch that to $2k for something like a Benchmark DAC3. But sonicly you can probably buy SOTA in the $500-600 range, provided your willing to compare using bias controlled double blind listening tests.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The Lynx Hilo is purported to have one of the best ADC's on the market, supported in part by the objective testing as referenced in post 15. All of the measurements I have taken of the Hilo certainly puts it up there, but I am biased as I have owned one since it first came out.

As far as what is audible... Unless the converter is broken or has filtering into the audible range, or a poorly designed and/or implemented analog line output stage, I would be surprised if any of us could hear any difference at all in a DBT. I say that with support from an experiment linked below. I got to about 12 bits of resolution before I could not hear a difference. PM me if you want the answer key after you have listened: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/Fun-With-Digital-Audio-–-Bit-Perfect-Audibility-Testing/

All we need is to convince Amir to buy a Hilo or have someone donate one to him.

 

[mitchco]

@Blumlein 88 I think @dallasjustice was possibly going to bring one on a visit to @amirm re post 11.