I've mentioned, in more than one thread, that I can hear something which I think is what others have called a digital "glare" (especially as it relates to DACs that use an ESS chip).
What I hear, specifically, is a little too much high frequency that appears to be added to, or over-emphasized in, the highs of any given track. I also notice that individual instruments seem to be more isolated than what you would hear if the same piece were recorded in a studio or hall where the sound of one instrument bleeds a bit into that of the others (especially those closest). I don't consider that latter "glare", but I do feel that allowing some of that bleed-through makes a recording feel less realistic to my ears.
I was also sometimes hearing a distortion in the loudest instruments (or those that have been bumped up to stand out in the mix, like dialog over the music in a movie soundtrack). The best way to describe it is that the sounds suddenly seem very low-fi (like an old transistor radio with a single speaker back in the 1960s cranked up too high, pushing out on top of everything else). That's what bugged me the most. Then, one day, I saw a DAC review where the reviewer advised that all DACs be set to the lowest DPLL value to "improve fidelity". I did so and the distortion becaome worse. So, I tried the opposite (setting it to the highest DPLL value on both my DACs) and that removed most of the disortion I was hearing.
Apparently the thing that most bothered me about my DACs (both of which are Loxjie products that use ESS chips) is the jitter. Removing as much of that as possible has had more effect than changing the filters or sound colors (and there seems to me much less difference between them now).
What I hear, specifically, is a little too much high frequency that appears to be added to, or over-emphasized in, the highs of any given track. I also notice that individual instruments seem to be more isolated than what you would hear if the same piece were recorded in a studio or hall where the sound of one instrument bleeds a bit into that of the others (especially those closest). I don't consider that latter "glare", but I do feel that allowing some of that bleed-through makes a recording feel less realistic to my ears.
I was also sometimes hearing a distortion in the loudest instruments (or those that have been bumped up to stand out in the mix, like dialog over the music in a movie soundtrack). The best way to describe it is that the sounds suddenly seem very low-fi (like an old transistor radio with a single speaker back in the 1960s cranked up too high, pushing out on top of everything else). That's what bugged me the most. Then, one day, I saw a DAC review where the reviewer advised that all DACs be set to the lowest DPLL value to "improve fidelity". I did so and the distortion becaome worse. So, I tried the opposite (setting it to the highest DPLL value on both my DACs) and that removed most of the disortion I was hearing.
Apparently the thing that most bothered me about my DACs (both of which are Loxjie products that use ESS chips) is the jitter. Removing as much of that as possible has had more effect than changing the filters or sound colors (and there seems to me much less difference between them now).
