darrell;691677 Wrote: > Are you saying that bits are *not* bits? > > Of course, a DAC, by its nature, is as much an analogue as a digital > device, and I haven't heard anyone in this forum claiming that careful > design in that area is not important - you just need to look at the > equipment lists in various peoples' signatures! > > But it is another thing entirely when tweakery which might be > appropriate in the analogue domain is applied wholesale to the digital > domain. Accurate (bit perfect) transfer of digital signals is very well > understood. Yes, you can nitpick about noise which may be introduced one > way or another into the analogue components, but whether it makes the > slightest difference to the end result is another question, one which > can only be answered by properly controlled blind listening tests. > > The problem is that the advances in DAC technology have almost killed > the goose that lays the golden egg, as far as the traditional "source > first" industry is concerned. I have a Naim amplifier, and I love it. > But it still amuses me that Naim produced a white paper explaining why > its DAC was effectively indifferent to the digital source feeding it, > but still market extremely expensive digital source components. Don't > get me wrong - if I had unlimited resources, I'd probably buy a > complete Naim setup, but I wouldn't kid myself that my motivation was > the sound quality.
You have hit on an interesting conundrum there: DACs, increasingly, are designed to be less susceptible to all the junk produced by the transport: yet they advertise their better transports! Without detailed knowledge, the knee-jerk reaction is to leap to the conclusion that the claim made for the DAC is the truth, and the transport is the snake oil. The reality is more complicated: in truth, you cannot make a DAC that is entirely immune to its input. G.I.G.O. But it's important to market the DAC in such a way that emphasises EFFORTS to aim TOWARD this goal. Unfortunately, some PR departments get a bit carried away in this regard, and many buyers fail to scrutinise the claims - or read between the lines - with sufficient rigour. Which makes claims made about the 'dedicated' transport hard to believe. The bottom line of course is that a better transport will sound better. How could it not? -- item_audio ------------------------------------------------------------------------ item_audio's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=51315 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93549 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
