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When is a DAC old?

S

Schnitger

pfm Member
I have a first generation Auralic Vega DAC. It's about 8 years old - getting long in the tooth by digital standards.

And yet, it still sounds good to me. When I bought it FLAC was already mature, as was asynchronous USB. The analogue stages are well designed, and I'm not aware of any significant advances in analogue stage design in recent years. The drivers are still supported by Auralic, though at the point PC operating systems are no longer compatible with the DAC part of its function becomes obsolete, ie, USB connection to a PC.

So, is it an 'old' and out of date DAC? Is it the case that a new and well designed cheaper DAC will sound better by virtue of being new? I suspect not.

I've no intention of upgrading by the way. Those days are mercifully over.
 
I am currently listening to my headphones from a Micromega MyDAC and that design is about 10 years old now.

It sounds better to my ears than the Topping E30 that it replaced :)
 
Schnitger said:
I have a first generation Auralic Vega DAC. It's about 8 years old - getting long in the tooth by digital standards.

And yet, it still sounds good to me. When I bought it FLAC was already mature, as was asynchronous USB. The analogue stages are well designed, and I'm not aware of any significant advances in analogue stage design in recent years. The drivers are still supported by Auralic, though at the point PC operating systems are no longer compatible with the DAC part of its function becomes obsolete, ie, USB connection to a PC.

So, is it an 'old' and out of date DAC? Is it the case that a new and well designed cheaper DAC will sound better by virtue of being new? I suspect not.

I've no intention of upgrading by the way. Those days are mercifully over.
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There have been some developments in the interpolation/upsampling/filtering, jitter reduction/rejection and also the USB interface but the most important aspect of a DAC is probably the analogue stage and there's been nothing new in its design for ages as far as I know.
 
I have had a few DACs over the past 10 years from Meridian, Cambridge Audio and Audiolab (CDQ). Didn't see much benefit in any of them over the CD player I had at the time (CDQ was also a CD Player). Streaming via whatever I had was certainly below par when compared with CD then.

However, just splashed out on the new Chord Mojo 2 and I am appreciating a more sophisticated sound and it is a joy to listen to.

That said I have also heard older Cambridge Audio (the first DAC they did) but highly modified, sound very well and also some old Theta gear too. I think the power supplies has a lot to do with it, which if this is the case, there probably are some good old ones around.

In the past though, I came to know that a lot of people would think of a DAC as highly regarded if it had a very smooth and warm sound - trying to emulate analogue I guess. Some did this but at the cost of dynamics and sounded very lifeless, so perhaps be aware of that. Perceptual technologies (I think it was called) was guilty of that IMO.
 
My DACmagic100 with a LPSU gets more airtime than my Mojo. I’m not sure how ancient the former is compared to the latter. They are distinct from each other and I enjoy using them both. Win, win.
 
MUTTY1 said:
My DACmagic100 with a LPSU gets more airtime than my Mojo. I’m not sure how ancient the former is compared to the latter. They are distinct from each other and I enjoy using them both. Win, win.
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I have kept both those dacs, sold lots of newer/higher spec ones on. The 100 came out around 2012 I think, serious bargain used.
 
Amber Audio said:
I have kept both those dacs, sold lots of newer/higher spec ones on. The 100 came out around 2012 I think, serious bargain used.
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Thanks. Quite ancient then. It’s neat and unpretentious and £80 posted :) When I put the Mojo in I love the lean crisp detail but prefer the 100 in the round.
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that as with all electronic equipment, components wear out over time so a new piece of equipment at any price may sound fantastic to someone who has become used to a sound degrading over time.

A great deal of time and effort is put in round the world to preserve those pieces of equipment that in their day were the pinnacle of sound reproduction as far a those people are concerned.....nothing gets old, just given renewed life.

The answer is simple, it's old if no one thinks it's worth the time to restore it.

If that's the case, donate it and buy something new but you'll always be thinking in the back of your mind 'is this new one better than my old one'?

Nothing gets old if you like it, take my wife.......
 
A dac is old when what hifi say it is... usual blather is ' dac is bit long in the tooth now and the competition have caught up and overtaken it blah blah..
 
A DAC is old when it won't play recently recorded music, when it farts while decoding complex passages, prefers comfortable files as opposed to stylish ones, and, after a power outage, flashes 12:00 for weeks on end until the grandkids visit and reset the DAC's clock.

Joe
 
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