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Adding an external DAC may, but not always sound better than using the one in the device.An internal DAC is part of every device that plays a digital file and that has speaker or headphone outputs.I think a little recap of some of the highlights of the article is in order. Since we are primarily discussing headphones (and if you plan on using the built-in headphone amplifier within the DAC), the amp quality, impedance, and power may have a larger impact on the final sound than the DAC chip itself. Until you have the opportunity to audition a lot of different equipment with a very revealing headphone setup, it may be almost impossible to perceive any meaningful improvements between DACs.Ĭlearly, it is far easier to compare DACs on technical specifications, file type support, bit depth, sample rate, etc. What sounds superior to one person may not to another.Ī modern, high-quality DAC is very unlikely to sound ‘bad’, and the gradients of sounding ‘good’ can be very fine indeed. Did the reviewer really hear these things? Is it expectation bias? Is the reviewer just really good at “audiophile” lingo? How on earth did they objectively measure these things? Spatial cues and dynamics are dramatically improved over lesser models.Īny of this sound familiar to you? Likely you’ve read a DAC review or two that says something along the lines of the above. Voices are distinctly pinpointed in space, and the soundstage is both deeper and wider than competing DAC models. Instruments are notable by the absence of congestion and harshness. The sonic performance of the DAC is astounding! The level of clarity and fine detail is amazing. Subjective Interpretation of DAC Performance DAC, Chip, MQA, DSD, Bit Depth / Sample Rate Chart DAC Rather it may function as a quick way to identify DACs that have features you are interested in and which share the same basic chipset.
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The following chart is not meant to be a complete listing of all available DACs. While in a mathematical sense they essentially describe the same process, they tend to be discussed in different contexts.
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They are a type of digital signal processing (DSP) performed on the audio data. Upsampling and Oversamplingīoth upsampling and oversampling are the process of increasing the sample rate of the original signal. It pushes noise into less perceivable frequencies and reduces it for lower frequency sounds.ĭifferent DAC manufacturers utilize different digital filtering algorithms and different analog filtering componentry, and as you may have deduced, they will (perhaps subtly) sound different from each other. Noise Shaping is a filter designed to increase the dynamic range and the signal to noise ratio of the resultant signal. It’s up to the DAC to figure out what the most likely option is, and it uses filters to predict or take an ‘educated guess’. The original audio wave may be a straight line, or a curved sign wave or a square wave, all of which sound very different. These points represent an analog audio wave. In the simplest example, we can picture a digital sample of 3 points. A ‘smart’ filter looks at the data before and after the current step and uses this information to better predict the proper behavior. Increased sample rates improve the accuracy of digital reproduction, but still, some data is lost in the process. (From: )ĭigital filters are essentially a mathematical algorithm designed to improve the sound. the headphones themselves.įilters in the conversion chain. I’m a strong believer that every other part of the chain is secondary to the things that physically convert the signal into sound waves, i.e. At least as important to the final sound is the quality of the source material, the amplifier and the headphones themselves. A well-designed DAC is only one part of the audio chain. So, probably the least likely reason that you will be selecting a new DAC is to solve an audio problem.Īudio improvement is always in the ear of the beholder. With most modern gear (unless it is malfunctioning) the internal DAC is likely going to perform well enough to avoid major audio issues such as noise (audible hiss) or artifacts (glitch clicks, pops or squeals) in the digital to analog conversion process. The basic reasons for adding an external DAC can be summarized as: For the vast majority of folks, the headphone jack on their phone will provide absolutely acceptable music playback quality. The addition of an external DAC is solely in the realm of the enthusiast or audiophile. Subjective Interpretation of DAC Performance.Use these quick links to quickly navigate around the article.