drmatt wrote: > Can we linguistically distinguish between "DACs" as in integrated > circuits, awaiting soldering to a board with supporting electronics, > which alone have no inherent sound (unless badly designed or faulty) and > "DACs" as in consumer electronics products that have all sorts of other > reasons why they might sound a little different.
The difference you suggest is generally either trivial (in the sense that its no surprise for factual reasons) or non existent. To put it in other words, both DAC chips and DAC-based audio components have all sorts of reasons why they may sound different, but as a matter of published scientific data, scientific data that I've gathered personally, and DBT listening tests that I've participated in as either listener and/or test organizer, it rarely happens. When it does happen which is I repeat relatively rare, it is often obviously intentional and publicized. For example a typical so-called NOS DACs are obviously intentionally designed to sound colored because the DAC was designed to be composed of two chips, but one of the chips is left out to obtain the observed coloration (a high frequency roll-off). The vast majority of digital audio gear that is actually sold (probably 99%+ based on numbers sold) is sonically transparent - utterly audibly faithful to its source. Most audiophiles go through their lives *upgrading* one sonically transparent DAC to another, which is obviously futile. 99+% of people's perceptions that DACs or DAC based gear sounds different is based on placebo effects and personal bias. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ arnyk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=64365 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106519 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
