Four generations
First outboard, an old MUSE Fuse Wolfson DAC, with a much improved power supply so no line noise .01 generation
Oppo BDP-103. Old but well respected. Newer but similar generation to the Muse
Schiit Asgard with AKM internal dac .001 generation
Topping .001 generation
The Muse does not do HD, but the other three do.
Wayback in the dawn of time, I found the Wolfson to sound better than the Burr Brown of the era. It beat my old NAD CD by a lot and a slight edge over the old Rotel CD. Back there, there were few that could tough the Rotel. Differences were clear.
I will also verify it is functional with no spurious garbage like the E30 I sent back last year. Loopback via a Scarlett IO box. Nowhere able to get the true specs, but can identify a serious defect.
All will feed the Asgard line stage. I also have my old Nakamichi preamp.
I will use my Grado's as they bring out the worst of the music where my Yamahas are smoother.
Then all will feed my main stereo. In all cases RCA out as I am running a couple of feet, not a couple hundred. The Schiit has all the line drive needed.
I will then test it as pre-out without the Asgard into the speakers.
What I am listening for is that glare on horns, violins and voices like Joni Mitchel. Can I crank up Harry James and my wife not leave the room covering her ears? Can't it tame Buddy Rich? How about really bad recordings like the 2400 Fulton St Jefferson Airplane. Does Amanda McBroom melt any still breathing male. I don't care about pulling out tiny details below the noise floor you can only hear with $5000 headphones. I only use phones on my desk to not disturb my wife in the morning. Such details are not audible with speakers in a real living room. I will be testing with cans and no eq. I will test with and without on speakers.
I still believe:
For a short distance, where electrical noise is not an issue, balanced lines and cans are total marketing BS. If one unit sounds better with balanced, then they have an incompetent SE design. From testing Amirm has done, that does seem common. So, not the technology, the implementation. The one place where it may have a tiny advantage is in class D modules that are a differential input. But that too depends on how well they do their input stage.
I hope to soon believe if DACs that cost more than $100 that are well executed sound the same or not. Of course, many may degrade in different ways. Kind of like expensive RCA cables. I have heard differences in some esoteric cable as they screwed things up compared to plain old Belden stranded 75 Ohm coax. Different yes. Better no. As far as a DAC, the question may be: Is cleaner better? For all I know, I may like the Muse better and will have wasted a frustrating year and a lot of money upgrading. Maybe there is a reason no one sells their OPPO.
I am recapping my old MOSFET amp today as the "upgrade" to the Parasound was a disaster. At least the week I have spent with LTSpice verifying my old design I can claim was an upgrade. Only change is upping the LTP current to match the VAS and a little less LTP emitter degen and new main filter bank with multiple low ESR caps. I may spring for some .5% degen resistors as the transistors were already matched. ( closest two from 20)
Tracks that can sound bad, or sound great:
Bream plays Alverez. Anything wrong and the base strings sound metallic
Ladies of the Canyon Tweeter killer
King James Version edge to trumpet crescendos
Buddy Rich band. He pushes the horns really hard
Children of Sanchez Should be smooth as butter
Growing up in Hollywood almost erotetic
2400 Fulton, just a bad recording.
Opening hand clapping on Clapton Unplugged. Bad recording and bad electronics makes it worse
I need to find some good HD files.
This is going to take a while unless pieces fall out quickly. To work.