Posted by FredT [ 24.175.116.95 ] on September 02, 2005 at 20:40:09:
In Reply to: Re: DAC 60 or 72 posted by jim denton on August 31, 2005 at 10:08:04:
This whole digital business is as clear as mud to me. PCM audio is a technically complex process that requires the use of technical terms I'm not familiar with. But the review of the Audio Note 1 DAC at the link below that provides the most understandable description I have seen.
Many believe the damage that brickwall filters do within the time domain is largely responsible for the unnatural digital sound we have grown accustomed to with PCM audio. They believe a DAC with no brickwall filter produces a more natural sound than one with. But in last month's Houston Audio Society meeting we listened to three non ovesampling DAC's that sell in the $400-$800 price range, then we heard all three seriously outperformed by a $2,200 oversampling DAC. Big surprise: the one that cost three times more sounded better than the cheap ones.
My interest in these Chinese DAC's is due to the fact that they appear to have many of the features you find in mainstream DAC's costing several times more, so I'm interested in whether they sound as good as the high priced spread. For $175 including air freight I'm willing to find out. Of course if I can persuade someone to buy one of the more expensive models I'll do that too so we can compare them:)
I'm sure someone who understands DAC's better than I do will read this, and hopefully they'll jump in here and help us understand this better.
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