Hi George,
Which DAC outperforms the Tranquility? And in what respect?
It sounds like you are making a decision solely based on price. It's a bit like saying if they charged $20k you would believe its better than whatever you have in mind at $10k. From what I read, Danny said there would be some give and take in a direct comparison... that seems pretty reasonable way to convey the performance, not really hyperbole.
How do we price a component? Is it just the cost of parts? or a factor of the time of R&D in design? If you spend about the same for parts, and about the same amount of time designing, and decide to average it out over 1000 units instead of 100, then you can afford to make one 10% the price of the other... so its not that big a reach, to my way of thinking.
Now if a designer has some unique insight, that someone else has overlooked, it seems like that might be able to offer considerable leverage to the performance to price ratio. I don't know whether or not it is true, here, but seems possible.
But it really comes down to how they perform, doesn't it? Seems like a few shootouts are going to be helpful, but unlikely to prove definitive for everyone.
-Tony
Tony,
I never claimed that any DAC outperforms the Tranquility DAC. In fact, I thought I made it clear that I haven't heard the Tranquility DAC.
I DO NOT make decisions solely on price, but let's get real for a second...when does price not play some type of determining factor in everything we purchase? While I am all about value and getting the best performance or functionality for what I am willing to spend, I don't have any illusions that you can't always do better. Unfortunately, many times (not all times) that means having to spend more money. Just to be clear - I don't believe that if something is more expensive it must be better.
I think we can all agree that it costs money to design, research, and build products. While some of the cost of the product goes into aspects that don't improve its performance, (dealer markup, marketing, exotic case work, etc....) some of it does directly go towards defining how it performs. For example, I think it costs more money to design and build a better power supply or to use certain caps, etc...heck we see this in many designs and have no problem accepting that.
While you are correct that a manufacturer can spread R&D costs out over the expected life cycle of the product, most audio vendors aren't selling hundreds of a given item, let alone 1000's, so they don't have that luxury and must recoup their costs with much smaller volumes.
I am not denying that it is possible that the designer of the Tranquility DAC has come up with a great product, maybe even some new innovations. I am just skeptical that it performs as well as being touted. I have heard too many claims how product "x" at a fraction of the price of products "y" and "z" is better, only to be seriously disappointed when finally trying product "x".
Danny, you would need to contact Dan Wright and see if he is willing to send you something for the shootout, can't help you there.
I'll stop now and let things get back to the shootout.
Have fun.
George
