Ciunas Audio
Trade: Ciunas Audio
A mid-market DAC that's genuinely truthful in the lower registers often initially feels 'lightweight'. It became such an often-repeated comment that Benchmark put it early in the manual of the first DAC1. There was a heading: “Where has my bass gone?”
It always happens when you swap to a battery supply, too. It's the sound of better - but it can take a few listens to realise that what's missing is artificial 'tubbiness'.
Exactly the same happens when you improve the USB or SPDIF source.
It's also similar (on a micro-scale) to auditioning speakers re: bass performance - low-rent ones try to kid you they're doing it; middling ones do it honestly within their limitations; high-end models do it for real.
It does make you wonder why some maintain all DACs sound the same . . .
I agree Mark, when the texture of the bass becomes more noticeable & more realistic sounding then I would say that more of the recording is being portrayed.
I would also add that the top end can also become more smooth & silky without losing detail.
These areas are very tricky to tease out - what is loss of dynamics/detail & what is more accurate to the actual recording? A recent example caught me out on this when listening to my DAC I thought it had more detail & snap than some other DACs being auditioned only to find that what I was hearing was RF noise being injected through a connected PS. My preference was for this added detail until I found out it was distortion.
As regards the Hugo - I haven't heard it but have heard the reports & I would say some of it's sonic performance definitely comes from it's unique interpolation filter, some from the low voltage (read reduced ground bounce) FPGA doing the heavy lifting, some from it's analogue stage & some from it's battery power. The contribution ratio of each I couldn't be sure.