Do all DAC's have technical issues

[q3cpma]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

MOTU M2 here, no problem whatsoever. Even my Linux kernel issues were recently solved.

 

[LTig]

The only issue most DACs have, including SOTA ones like the RMEs, are reconstruction filters which do not suppress at least 80 dB at fs/2.

 

[weasels]

I have 2 cheap DACs (Topping and Schiit) and have never had any issue with either of them.

 

[boXem]

I think there are very personal definitions of "technical issues" here. My E30 suffers from technical issues to my eyes, but it looks like many people are happy with it.
It also has reliability issues, but that's another story.

 

[lizhuoyin]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

It's the intrinsic issue with online shopping and information overload. Audition a DAC with above average perfo in store or with easy return policy.

MOTU M2 here, no problem whatsoever. Even my Linux kernel issues were recently solved.

In Windows 10 latest, Amazon music hd cannot run in exclusive mode with my M4. Exclusive mode works in foobar 2000. I would consider it a DAC issue.

 

[dmac6419]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

My X16 is fine as well as all the other dacs from highest sinad to lowest sinad they all perform as expected.

 

[krumpol]

when was the last time you saw a reseller disclosing such information though?

Bought L30 last month, I've asked by e-mail beforehand. The seller, small company Audigo from Czech republic, replied instantly that manufacturer has reached out to them couple of months back and older L30 batch has been withdrawn from sale. Ask your seller to be sure.

 

[Wes]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

Which reviews are you reading, OP?

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that almost any of the sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have no technical issues relating to SQ.

 

[q3cpma]

In Windows 10 latest, Amazon music hd cannot run in exclusive mode with my M4. Exclusive mode works in foobar 2000. I would consider it a DAC issue.

Or Windows' UAC driver being poor.

 

[vco1]

Depends on your definition of "technical issues". No DAC has mathematically perfect reconstruction.

My definition of "technical issues" in this case is bugs, quality issues, strange audio artefacts. I know for a fact that my hearing is not perfect anymore. So I don't care too much about absolute specs. But I do care about weird clicks, crackles, hums and what have you during normal playback. Or the fact that some format is just not supported fully, where it should be according to the specs of the DAC. And it's these issues that I see coming back in reviews of recent DAC's.

 

[vco1]

Which reviews are you reading, OP?

Gustard X16 Owners feedback:

Today I`ve noticed that at silent fragments of DSF files (at the end of tracks especially) some noise appear. In the background, something like electrostatic noise from vinyl.

Topping D30Pro:

Anyone else having 384kHz playback full of noise? I'm having the same noise issue with my 2 weeks old D30pro. Is this normal? I'm using it on 3 MacbookPro, different USB-A to USB-C converter and different USB-A to USB-B cable.

SMSL SU-9/M500:

The smsl su-9 and smsl m500 have a serious bug in their firmware detected by @liu and also measured and confirmed by @WolfX-700. See also post https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/strange-smsl-m500-high-3rd-harmonic.22710/
The SINAD will be very bad (about -75db or -80db) if you are listening to stereo. Therefore I would avoid SMSL SU-9 unless this bug is fixed.

For example.

 

[vco1]

My X16 is fine as well as all the other dacs from highest sinad to lowest sinad they all perform as expected.

It's not just about the numbers. I'd also like the units to function properly. And it's exactly that part that some people have issues with.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to buy an X16/H16 stack. And almost did. Until I saw comments from owners who seemed to have all kinds of audible artefacts. Not always. But still, for $900 I want to buy something that I can enjoy for quite some time.

 

[dmac6419]

It's not just about the numbers. I'd also like the units to function properly. And it's exactly that part that some people have issues with.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to buy an X16/H16 stack. And almost did. Until I saw comments from owners who seemed to have all kinds of audible artefacts. Not always. But still, for $900 I want to buy something that I can enjoy for quite some time.

I have no problems from none of the stacks, not from gustard or toppings that I own or from none of the multiple dacs that I own,they're all simple devices that do what they're supposed to do,I like to keep things simple.

 

[MRC01]

... I know for a fact that my hearing is not perfect anymore. So I don't care too much about absolute specs. But I do care about weird clicks, crackles, hums and what have you during normal playback. Or the fact that some format is just not supported fully, where it should be according to the specs of the DAC. ...

I had an early version of the JDS Element that produced occasional clicks when playing over USB. It could have been related to adaptive vs. async mode, or maybe something else. But whatever the cause, it would be nice to have a test for this. Because this DAC measured well, all distortions below audible thresholds, which was misleading given its actual performance.

 

[Zensō]

All electronics are going to have at least some failures. Perhaps instead of worrying about the potential issues with otherwise well regarded DACs, it would be better to focus on buying from manufacturers who have exemplary customer service.

 

[audio2design]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

Sure low cost DACs have issues, but if really want some serious issues, buy a high end DAC! Low end DACs have large user bases which means problems identified early, and either fixed, or the community warned. Are you sure you $10K DAC is working perfectly? How many $10K DAC purchases are techies putting it through its paces?

 

[Wes]

Gustard X16 Owners feedback:

Topping D30Pro:

SMSL SU-9/M500:

For example.

ok, based on the quotes, I suspect that is not the DAC per se, but something going on in the "streaming chain" or elsewhere.

 

[LTig]

All electronics are going to have at least some failures. Perhaps instead of worrying about the potential issues with otherwise well regarded DACs, it would be better to focus on buying from manufacturers who have exemplary customer service.

... like RME for example. The ADI-2 DAC certainly is expensive, but SOTA performance, lots of very useful features and exemplary customer support have a price.

 

[Marc v E]

ok, based on the quotes, I suspect that is not the DAC per se, but something going on in the "streaming chain" or elsewhere.

Good point. I had an issue with the raspberry pi4 which turned out to be my dac/pre.

Some Nas devices are not bit perfect and certainly when streaming high res I've read blogs that claim they convert back to mp3.See here https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress...ors-in-digital-audio-part-8-the-weakest-link/

Not to mention all the other devices like amps and speakers that most likely can't faithfully reproduce high res.

 

[hawk01]

When reading the reviews and user experience threads on ASR I get the impression that a lot of/all sub $1000 modern-day DAC's have technical issues in one way or another. Be it the X16, the D30Pro, or the M400 (to name but a few). How to interpret these "issues"? Are they inherent to the use "state-of-the-art" technology? Caused by lack of quality control by the manufacturers? And should these issue be taken seriously by "regular" consumers, or are these mostly edge-cases?

If not anything else, reading about all the issues makes it pretty hard to decided on a new DAC. ;-) Even though $500-$1000 may not be a lot in the audiophile world, I do hate to waste that much money on a "flawed" product.

i had two of the more popular DACs which you might read here. both have ssues on DSD playback (popping noise) and the other having a known issue with its optical and coaxial connections. i also have a modest SMSL Sanskrit 10th MKII which is excellent and absolutely flawless! i highly recommend it for the price point and i doubt you will ever pass a DBT sorting it from the more expensive units out there.