Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

IF you want a DAC to play normal "redbook" cds then you shouldn't buy the latest and greatest...

Posted by morricab (S) on April 15, 2014 at 02:44:46

"high Resolution" DAC.

It seems to me that the best solutions for cd playback were more or less developed in the 1990s.

One should seek out top name DACs from that era that used the following chipsets (in descending order of preference):

Ultra Analog D20400 and D20400A, 20 bit ladder DAC. This is the top off-the-shelf DAC probably ever made. This was used by the biggest and best DACs of the 90s (Mark Levinson, Sonic Froniters, VTL, Manley, Spectral, Threshold, Audio Research, Krell, Counterpoint, STAX etc.)

Burr Brown PCM63K: 20 bit ladder DAC. Also used by top brands but at a tier lower in price usually. Excellent sound can be had from DACs with this chip but perhaps not quite at the Ultra Analog level of performance.

Analog Devices AD1862N: 20 bit ladder DAC. Also a top notch DAC chip but was not used as frequently as the BB. Excellent nonetheless.

Analog Devices AD1865N: 18 bit ladder DAC. Still used by Audio Note as their preferred DAC chip for the NOS (non-oversampling) designs. Capable of delivering a quite "analog" sound with extreme attention to the power supply and analog output sections.

Burr Brown PCM1704K: 24 bit ladder DAC. Out of production but still used widely today. Can be excellent but also perhaps a bit more analytical sounding than the earlier PCM63 and not really suitable for passive IV conversion. Still a winner in the right implementation.

Also, whether you go NOS or with traditional "oversampling" the sonic results from the DACs above can be stunning. A tube output stage done right can bring even higher performance.

I used to believe that the DAC chip itself made little to no difference...that it was all in the analog section and power supply. This I have come to realize is not true and the DAC/digital filter make an immense difference on the overall presentation of the information. The power supply and output have just as much impact but the digital conversion section cannot be ignored or handled by a cheap sigma/delta part and expect SOTA performance. Even really good sigma/deltas of the 32 bit variety don't do redbook as well. THere is something not natural that is happening with all the noise shaping that affects dynamics in a negative way and the impact of the music is lost even if the result is smooth and pleasing.

I personally haven't like very much the NOS DACs that are using the old Philips 16 bit chips and I don't know what Metrum is using (does anyone?) but their approach sounds pretty good too.

For those looking into getting a new DAC and don't really need high rez (or if 24/96 is good enough for you) then I say don't look at what is around now new but look to the past and get a SOTA DAC from yesteryear and you will be very surprised at what we have gone away from and what is missing in many of the new ones.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---