DAC Question

[Dan Masters]

BTW, in the last post, when I said "distortion" I meant "noise" primarily.  It's noise (random signal fluctuations) that causes two channels of identical source material to diverge in accuracy. 

Edited March 19 by Dan Masters

[TBick]

I have compared using a Schitt Modi to going direct from a fairly new laptop, and I do hear an improvement with the Modi.     But I was surprised that using a Wiim DAC, connected through wifi sounded just as good for me.   This was a pleasant surprise so that now I can stream music to my La Scalas in the living room, Hereseys in my office or even the outdoor speakers.

 

[MikeM]

I recently bought a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100, it was around $150 as an open box from Crutchfiled.  I liked the fact it has 3 inputs plus USB. I put it in line with my old Rega Planet (original) CD player from 1997.  The 100 uses a Wolfson 24-bit chipset from around 2011 that is probably a bit long in the tooth in DAC years but I think Rega, ironically, actually used this chip in its recent release of the Saturn III CD player.  Quite honestly I couldn't tell much difference at first.  Listened to about 12 different tracks of music and on a couple of them I actually thought Rega's original customized Burr-Brown DAC sounded better.  After running it for a few weeks I can tell that there is some better vocal presence and clarity in the mid-range but that's about it.  I plan to test it with a cheap Blu-Ray player to see if the difference is more pronounced.  I may splurge a bit and try the Geshelli Labs J2 down the as it seems to be all the rave and very up-to-date DAC.  

[Schu]

DEFINITELY long in the tooth... but hey, it still works.