I myself have listened to many different dacs and all of them have about the same specs but the expensive ones tend to sound clearer with less distortion. Is there some other way to measure a dac quality other than price?
I myself have listened to many different dacs and all of them have about the same specs but the expensive ones tend to sound clearer with less distortion. Is there some other way to measure a dac quality other than price?
For quite literally years, DAC/Amp purchases on the higher-end have been more about build quality, features, and I/O, not sound quality.
I own and love my $100 mobile DAC, but it gets thrown in the bag and goes on the road with me.
On my desk at home, I prefer the beauty and versatility of a well-made stack that provides balanced connections for my over-ears and IEMs, that can also drive my reference monitors, and offers optical ins/outs for some of my legacy gear, my studio’s audio interface, etc.
Do I notice the difference between my cheap and expensive DACs? Not a chance; my ears not only aren’t golden, but are getting older. And after a few decades of playing and recording music, wearing very loud headphones, or sitting in front of large, near-field monitors, that’s only getting worse.