Going to pack in a lot here because of the time penalty…
First… I urge all of you to wonder over to the PS Audio forums and find posts be tedsmith (the guy with the white beard). He’s the designer of the Direct Stream DAC. The Mk II version has been in development for a long while and is now out in beta. Ted talks about the design in great detail and even posts board photos. The new one is isolated on input and output. It uses 2 FPGAs for D/A conversion of which Ted writes the code. He talks about noise floor within the FPGA and things he’s done to push that floor lower and why input isolation is never perfect. It will give you a really good idea of DAC design and the considerations each manufacturer must weigh when putting a product to market at a price point. This is an $8k DAC so not the upper echelon but certainly not cheap. The component count is high compared to many lower priced DACs.
My problem with single tone measurements:
It’s proven that single tone measurements don’t tell the whole story. Music has harmonics; either in the recording to caused by the playback system, and those can cause differences in how a DAC sounds when listening even when that DAC may measure perfect with individual tones. It’s “easy” to make a DAC test perfect for single tones (DACs that are not used for audio are much closer to perfect and this is basically what’s happening with single tones). Additionally, you can screw-up the harmonics when the input, even digital, isn’t isolated properly and now you’ve got a DAC that tests perfect and sounds terrible with some sources.
Not all music has harmonics. Not all recordings capture them at a level they are heard during playback. So now we’ve got a situation where you’ve got a perfect measuring DAC that may perfectly reproduce some music and make other music sound absolutely terrible. Is that subjective? Absolutely. Is it still relevant to the discussion and choice of gear? Absolutely. Can this subjectivity be influenced by the streamer? My personal experience and reading hours of user reviews tells me yes.
Case in point… Tubes. Tubes test terrible compared to solid state. But there are a lot of people who prefer tubes. Are those people wrong? Are tubes “snake oil”? No. Don’t be afraid to listen.
Personal note… I have been blessed the past couple years to be able to spend on modest upgrades to my system and, in doing so, I’ve been chasing more “transparent” and “neutral” gear. You know what I’ve found? Transparent gear lets you hear a lot of garbage (hum, static, temperature changes, HVAC on/off, etc.). But it also let’s you hear the “air”, imaging, and soundstage that is collapsed and darn near non-existent in lesser gear. What do I mean by garbage. Removing this garbage is an easy fix of better cables and better power feeds. But it costs money beyond buying just the amps. Are my amps poorly designed? No. They just hit a price / performance point where they have very high performance at a price I was comfortable spending. If I wanted to spend 2x or 4x I could easily get amps just as transparent but immune to this garbage. I choose a different path. But, the takeaway here, they are “transparent” enough that the stuff around them makes a difference. I don’t think that’s “poor design” it’s a way to give customers transparency at a price point and I appreciate the “value”.
So, my little story of amps, how does it relate to streamers and digital?
If you have a DAC you love that is highly influenced by the input signal then I agree that DAC is a flawed design on paper. But, again, if you love it and want to keep it and it hit a price point you were willing to spend then… You’re absolutely in your right and correct to go spend more to upgrade what’s around that DAC to make it better. If that means a “better” streamer so be it. That’s the “benefit” of high end streamers (which I thought was the topic here). It allows people to keep the gear they love and make it better. That isn’t snake oil. That isn’t a manufacturer “telling lies”. That’s a real benefit to the user.
Synergy is important in audio and that synergy extends to the kind of music we listen to and how we want it reproduced. You can ask 2 people listening to the exact same recording if it sounds good and they will disagree. Why? Because, someone likes a dry reproduction and another person wants it wet. Sometimes the garbage carried along with the digital signal influences the DAC to be less dry. Technically worse but subjectively better. I would not fault that purchase if it made the owner happy. The question was benefit. Benefit should be measured by smiles per listen.
To quote the great Mike Moffat:
“audio precision handjob ■■■■■■■■ is just flea farts while jet engines are going by”
The censor starts with “b” just to make sure we quote the man properly.
Anyway, enjoy your day and enjoy the music.
So it’s all good, and FTR I think most high end hifi is ridiculous (but fun to look at). A friend of mine has an insane $200k (retail, nt what he paid) Naim/Chord/Kudos setup, and while it was a fun listen, when I came home it cemented how nice my carefully implemented $8k set up sounds. Tweaks can matter. But I may end up selling most of them and getting something more modern. In the office, I did try a Matrix Mini Pro when my Naim Unitiqute (2005) was away for a repair. Sold the Matrix when the Naim returned. The Matrix in all regards probably measured ‘better’ (both going out to the same external amp) but the Naim was like coming home to a favorite pair of slippers soundwise.
