Digital Drive

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

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There is NO MAGIC here

Posted by Feanor on February 16, 2024 at 05:02:26:
Read objective reviews and select from among the top performers -- stop fretting and ignore R2R vs. D/S. Also stop worrying about the DAC vs. analog sections; it's the end result that matters.

Audio Science Review (ASR) has hundreds of DAC reviews: start there. Always start by looking at the distortion spectrum and the SINAD. At the moment ASR top-rated DAC is the SMSL SU-10: see the link below. DACs at or close to this level of performance are completely neutral. If you don't think so, get some buddies together and do a blind ABX test a few such -- you'll discover you can't tell the difference at this level.

If you don't like 'neutral' but want some "voicing", I suggest you do that at the preamp stage while keeping the up & down stream components (including speakers) as neutral, hi.e. distortion free as possible.

IMHO, tube equipment is a problematic morass. Avoid it except possibly at the preamp stage.