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Dacs Again

tenpercenter said:
I’ve owned several DACs as previously stated.

RME DAC - I admired it more than I enjoyed it

Naim DAC V1 - was better, more organic but quite dark sounding

Topping D50 - dipped my toe in the confusing world of Chinese DAC’s. Kind of did everything well enough but just didn’t engage me in the music at all. Had some operational issues as well.

Chord Qutest - cerebral, detailed, well balanced but ultimately left me feeling a bit sterile

Heard but not owned several more as well….

The Deco Transfer DAC engages me, makes me want to listen for longer and has a vivid musical presentation - really textured and vibrant. Guitars really resonate as lifelike as an example. I stop thinking about hifi. Thankfully, I’m done with DACs
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Could you please say a little more about the Deco dac please TP? Or even, a mini review? I miss my old Audio Note dac but dont want something that lacks detail.
 
darrenyeats said:
Jim from my playing with filters, I was able to use a variety of filter steepnesses, some very steep, with minimum and intermediate phase filters.

Edit: remembering more ... Yes if you change FR the ringing will change shape, too, I agree there.

I was able to get a flat FR up to 99% of FS/2 with minimum phase, just as I could with linear phase (using noise measurement). I found choice of FR was orthogonal to choice of linear/min/int filter type.
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FWIW How close you can get a response to fs/2 is set by the span (in samples) which the DAC can use for each output instant. The longer the 'span' of the samples in scope of the DACs calculations, the closer you can get. Hence to some extent Robin Watts approach.
 
I have limited experience of Dacs, having for several years used the on board DAC of my CD player fed by Squeezebox touch , and a Teddydac in second system

i recently picked up a Topping DX3 Pro+ to enable me to connect TV to hi-fi, out of curiosity I decided to see what the main system sounded like through it. I have to say I’m shocked at how good it is, especially as it’s near the bottom of their convoluted range, 160 odd pounds from Amazon.

It is not perfect, perhaps a bit forward for some tastes, but it’s damn good fun. I do wonder if it’s necessary to spend Mega money to get top class sound from a DAC these days . I confess to zero technical understanding .
 
deserter said:
I have limited experience of Dacs, having for several years used the on board DAC of my CD player fed by Squeezebox touch , and a Teddydac in second system

i recently picked up a Topping DX3 Pro+ to enable me to connect TV to hi-fi, out of curiosity I decided to see what the main system sounded like through it. I have to say I’m shocked at how good it is, especially as it’s near the bottom of their convoluted range, 160 odd pounds from Amazon.

It is not perfect, perhaps a bit forward for some tastes, but it’s damn good fun. I do wonder if it’s necessary to spend Mega money to get top class sound from a DAC these days . I confess to zero technical understanding .
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Just a thought but perhaps the thought should be perhaps how bad the dac was in your cd player?

But joking aside there are many very capable dacs around now for not much money.

That does not mean that they are top class but they are still very good.

Beware the slippery slope and thin edge of the wedge though!! There are many beguiling DACs around but my favourite saying applies in that comparison is the thief of joy!
 
Having started the thread, I’ll end my contribution by saying the Topping D70 Pro Sabre is all the dac I’d ever need. I like my others: Topping mentioned above, MDHT Pagoda, Audial S4, RME ADI2, recently departed Chord 2Qute; very different dacs, frankly, they all sound very similar.

Despite not stepping above the £2.5K mark personally, I’ve listened to very expensive ones and conclude that dac differences these days are minimal and over-egged.
 
Fourlegs said:
Just a thought but perhaps the thought should be perhaps how bad the dac was in your cd player?

But joking aside there are many very capable dacs around now for not much money.

That does not mean that they are top class but they are still very good.

Beware the slippery slope and thin edge of the wedge though!! There are many beguiling DACs around but my favourite saying applies in that comparison is the thief of joy!
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Well actually, I still prefer listening via the CD player ( which currently retails not far short of 4000….i didn’t pay that for it btw). It’s not that one is better or worse, they are just very different in their presentation . I guess that may be more to do with other aspects of the implementation . My point is that for 160 pounds, the Topping ( and presumably others) is very good indeed. I hardly ever play CDs so the player part is obsolete
 
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