Audiosciencereview.com Dac Chart

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viggen

Re: Audiosciencereview.com Dac Chart
« Reply #40 on: 25 Feb 2020, 04:18 pm »
bits are bits is a religion. 

HT cOz

Re: Audiosciencereview.com Dac Chart
« Reply #41 on: 26 Feb 2020, 05:27 pm »
Time to have some fun with this...

I picked up the Khadis Tone Dac.  This dac measures at 109 and makes it into the green section of the chart.  It is a great value at ~$100 on Amazon. 

















I plugged it into my system which consists of the following:
Olive Musica playing FLAC files and putting out COAX Digital
Pass Korg B2 with two inputs
Panasonic Panasonic Digital Amp (Temporary)
Selah Ceramica Speakers

My usual dac is a Modwright Transport

My findings are simple, the Tonedac probably measures better than the Modwright but it was simply no contest.  The Modwright had more presence, better sound stage, more holography, and just makes my system sparkle.  The Tone dac while ok was dull compared to the Modwright Transporter.  I’m not sure you can measure what I’m hearing but it is obvious in my system that the two DACs sound very different. 

The output section of the Modwright is tried and true and likely makes the biggest difference in the two DACS.  It was also originally about 30x more expensive. 

Tyson

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Re: Audiosciencereview.com Dac Chart
« Reply #42 on: 26 Feb 2020, 05:45 pm »
The follow up question is "Why"?  If the Khadas measures better than the Modwright, but the Modwright sounds better, then there must be other factors at play outside of the measurements. 

Measurements don't always tell the story, and in fact are sometimes misleading.  I'll give an example - a solid state device is inherently non-linear and needs a fair bit of feedback to become linear.  This also allows it to measure very well on the bench in other areas like noise, THD, etc... On the other hand, a tube is inherently linear and needs little/no feedback.  But it measures much worse. 

So why do so many people prefer the sound of tubes, which are much worse measuring devices?  I think it's because we are sensitive to the sound of feedback.  Apply a moderate amount (or a lot) and suddenly that device (to us) sounds cold, sterile, analytical.  But hey, it measures great! 

Anyway, that's my current pet theory to explain why measurements almost never correspond to enjoyability in electronic devices.