Have you driven cars before pollution standards? did you notice that even though they have less power, they drive more sportily? the new ones have hundreds of horsepower but behave like a tired grandma. You know why ? Because the pollution rules strangle the engine, don't let it suddenly put all the power to the wheel. Due to pollution regulations, the power is put to the wheel gradually. It is the same with DACs. To obtain very small distortions in static measurements and low noise, manufacturers use power supplies with high output impedance, with high resistance PCB routes. High impedance limits sudden current increases, tempers them and this leads to a flat, uninteresting sound. No one hears distortions smaller than 0.1%, but instead feels the linear distortions generated by the current limitations that lead to amplitude drops when playing music. This thing is not found in the static signals with which the measurements are
I'm sorry but I'm actually a car guy and this analogy doesn't work at all. While emissions components definitely restricted the horsepower and torque output of the engines, that is actually reducing measured performance.
The reason why modern cars which supposedly make more horsepower are actually slower than old cars before emission standards is due to engine designs and the government mandates that require gas mileage to be over 30, which means that most cars are using CVTs or very long gears.
When you look at the performance of a modern engine, you will notice that while they are hitting a peak number specifically, which is what they are reporting as horsepower, the actual performance of the engine depends on the power under the curve, which while building tiny, gas-efficient engines, you are not going to have meaty power bands.
Most of the engines before the days of the modern emission standards were much larger in the sense that many of the cars today that have i4s had V6s or even V8s and the overall general use of V8s was quite high and as such they had very nice power bands that you do not achieve with 1.8 liter naturally aspirated 4Cylinders.
Now when you are comparing this to a DAC that actually has great measured performance that actually tops the charts, you are not comparing the same thing at all because one is reducing measured performance and the other is not.
In the case of the DAC, you are actually measuring the output of the DAC and the output is perfect for what the DAC is supposed to do. Unlike measuring horsepower and torque and power bands and looking at lower numbers on the power bands and shorter power bands with less torque in order to achieve more gas mileage.
Are you saying that the D70s power supply needs to be changed?
Thanks. That's all I needed. I got the D70s because it fit my budget and was available at that time.
What do you recommend we do to fix this? I am not taking the DAC apart and digging around the chips. I just want to enjoy my music. Thanks.
Is there a DAC in your mind that fits the bill? The SMSL D400EX with AK4191 + dual AK4499EX or the Topping D70 Octo 8-chip DAC? or some R-2R DAC?
The performance of this DAC literally tops the chart and nothing that is produced after this will have any sonic benefits as long as human hearing remains limited as it is today.
There is nothing about this that is broken at all and absolutely nothing needs to be fixed. You can simply lower the volume by two decibels as you see is done here in the test in order to make the voltage the standard voltage that most things like to receive.