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Question - do I go for an older DAC?

RobSaab

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I currently have a few DACs on hand (Gustard x20Pro and Chord 2Qute) feeding my Audiomat Prelude Reference amp. I have the chance to buy an Audiomat Tempo 2.5 DAC which the sales guy is telling me a truly musical (better DAC than either of mine). Something about a Burr Brown 7104 converter..not sure. Would love expert opinions would this be a mistake to replace the Chord and or Gustard?
 

levimax

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I currently have a few DACs on hand (Gustard x20Pro and Chord 2Qute) feeding my Audiomat Prelude Reference amp. I have the chance to buy an Audiomat Tempo 2.5 DAC which the sales guy is telling me a truly musical (better DAC than either of mine). Something about a Burr Brown 7104 converter..not sure. Would love expert opinions would this be a mistake to replace the Chord and or Gustard?

Your Chord DAC is about as good as it gets https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ew-and-measurements-of-chord-qutest-dac.5981/ and is "transparent" so there is nothing to be gained by replacing it. Any salesman that says otherwise is not looking out for your interests and "more musical" is a dead give away.
 

Killingbeans

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Something about a Burr Brown 7104 converter..not sure.

PCM1704? An R2R chip that went out of production a handful(?) of years ago.

A lot of audiophiles think of R2R DACs as something magical that does things science hasn't figured out yet. That (and the fear of oversampling) makes them worship these old Burr-Brown chips, believing they are more "musical" and are giving access to other ethereal experiences.

It's all complete nonsense (IMO).

The Audiomat is probably a perfectly good DAC, but both the Gustard and the Chord are already performing way more like an "ideal" DAC than our measly human hearing could ever hope to acknowledge. (They are also both overkill, if you ask me)
 

andreasmaaan

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I currently have a few DACs on hand (Gustard x20Pro and Chord 2Qute) feeding my Audiomat Prelude Reference amp. I have the chance to buy an Audiomat Tempo 2.5 DAC which the sales guy is telling me a truly musical (better DAC than either of mine). Something about a Burr Brown 7104 converter..not sure. Would love expert opinions would this be a mistake to replace the Chord and or Gustard?

The DACs you have are transparent, so if anything you find sounds different to them, it is because it is distorting the signal in a way they are not.

If you're not happy with the (lack of) sound of your current DACs and wish to add some audible colouration, I would suggest trying software DSP, which is much cheaper and much more precise/configurable than any hardware solution.
 
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