Hi All.
I've been researching DACs to replace the Soundblaster Omni 5.1 I'm currently using (because I have it), which got very poor measurements (SINAD 90 amongst others). I've been looking at Modi 3+, Topping E30 and Topping D50S. Dac to be paired with a just ordered Rega Brio, and Dali Oberon 5's.
Main source for the dac is losslessly ripped CD's from Mac.
Then yestereday I read this thread:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-a-good-dac-pairing-for-the-2-0-stereo.15004/
And in particular, this post from Rja4000
So the sound blaster with 90DB SINAD is still going to be THD+N <0.0032%, so still swamped by the amp distortion - albeit perhaps only 1:70 rather than 1:100 - such that I'm unlikely to hear any improvement with a better DAC?
So based on that - should I stick with the sound-blaster now, and, perhaps put the £120 to £250 towards a MiniDSP (EG DDRC-24) with Direc later?
Thoughts appreciated.
Thanks.
I've been researching DACs to replace the Soundblaster Omni 5.1 I'm currently using (because I have it), which got very poor measurements (SINAD 90 amongst others). I've been looking at Modi 3+, Topping E30 and Topping D50S. Dac to be paired with a just ordered Rega Brio, and Dali Oberon 5's.
Main source for the dac is losslessly ripped CD's from Mac.
Then yestereday I read this thread:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-a-good-dac-pairing-for-the-2-0-stereo.15004/
And in particular, this post from Rja4000
What he means by "insignificant" is that you won't hear (ever) any sound degradation due to the DAC.
That means it will perfectly do the job.
You may find your amp's specs here:
http://www.rega.co.uk/brio-2017.html#panel2
Input 2-5 (line) input sensitivity = 210mV at 47kΩ
Maximum input 2-5 (line) input level = 10.25V
You also may find some measurements here:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/rega-research-brio-integrated-amplifier-measurements
As you can see, the Amp distortion and noise is setting between 0.02% and 0.05%
With 112dB SINAD, the DAC THD+N is <0,00025%
That's around 1/100, so the DAC-induced degradation is meaningless.
So the sound blaster with 90DB SINAD is still going to be THD+N <0.0032%, so still swamped by the amp distortion - albeit perhaps only 1:70 rather than 1:100 - such that I'm unlikely to hear any improvement with a better DAC?
So based on that - should I stick with the sound-blaster now, and, perhaps put the £120 to £250 towards a MiniDSP (EG DDRC-24) with Direc later?
Thoughts appreciated.
Thanks.