They were designed to be transparent when I started in the 90s and they’re designed to be transparent today. They just got better at making them audibly invisible as intended and cheaper to make between now and then. As long as companies continue to sit down on day one of creating a DAC with the first order of business making it inaudible, I’ll continue to evaluate and purchase them based on their ability to fulfill their intended purpose - Which costs about $8 in 2023.
I’m thankful people buy them so companies have extra revenue to keep gear that actually matters cheaper. They’ve managed turn a redundant and obsolete product category into an audio requirement thanks to people selling DACs and other audio jewelry for them through confirmation bias on the forums and assorted internet mediums. Companies were able to eliminate huge portions of their advertising and marketing budgets when customers started selling gear for them by telling anyone who would listen about how great what they just bought sounds regardless if it was possible for it to do it or not. They didn’t have to pour any snake oil on it, the communities did it for them. Not only did they sell gear for them, they made it into literal tribal warfare defending the products against criticism and objective data on their behalf. Unpaid labor is pretty sweet, you can sell a lot of things a lot cheaper with that kind of workforce and customer base.
That all contributed to what we have modern day, which is an era where what was unobtainable audio gear and levels of quality are now affordable for just about anybody. ASR came about and altered the market to make measurement standards for even entry level gear and anyone who knew how to interpret them and research how sound and audio equipment actually worked reaped the benefits people who didn’t paid for.
These days I just try to help new people save money entering the hobby by providing information so they can become informed consumers and count my lucky stars people who opt not to be still buy this stuff for higher and higher prices the cheaper it gets to make them. Audio used to be a really expensive hobby, now it’s pretty much just natural selection.
R2R can have audible difference in a lot of cases, I think that’s pretty well established. There’s slight differences in other DACs as well, it’s just aberrations or quirks or very small improvements more than these magical epic improvements people attribute to them that aren’t …possible. If it’s better is sort of the spin on R2R. There’s a case for it being inferior tech and there’s a case for it being preferred. It’s not something I’m interested in but I sort of view it like tube amps, if a person wants to pay for what it does it’s their money. I rarely see the R2R or tube amp people trying to spend newbie hobbyists money for them.
They were designed to be transparent when I started in the 90s and they’re designed to be transparent today. They just got better at making them audibly invisible as intended and cheaper to make between now and then. As long as companies continue to sit down on day one of creating a DAC with the first order of business making it inaudible, I’ll continue to evaluate and purchase them based on their ability to fulfill their intended purpose - Which costs about $8 in 2023.
I’m thankful people buy them so companies have extra revenue to keep gear that actually matters cheaper. They’ve managed turn a redundant and obsolete product category into an audio requirement thanks to people selling DACs and other audio jewelry for them through confirmation bias on the forums and assorted internet mediums. Companies were able to eliminate huge portions of their advertising and marketing budgets when customers started selling gear for them by telling anyone who would listen about how great what they just bought sounds regardless if it was possible for it to do it or not. They didn’t have to pour any snake oil on it, the communities did it for them. Not only did they sell gear for them, they made it into literal tribal warfare defending the products against criticism and objective data on their behalf. Unpaid labor is pretty sweet, you can sell a lot of things a lot cheaper with that kind of workforce and customer base.
That all contributed to what we have modern day, which is an era where what was unobtainable audio gear and levels of quality are now affordable for just about anybody. ASR came about and altered the market to make measurement standards for even entry level gear and anyone who knew how to interpret them and research how sound and audio equipment actually worked reaped the benefits people who didn’t paid for.
These days I just try to help new people save money entering the hobby by providing information so they can become informed consumers and count my lucky stars people who opt not to be still buy this stuff for higher and higher prices the cheaper it gets to make them. Audio used to be a really expensive hobby, now it’s pretty much just natural selection.
How about the difference between DACs that use R2R oversampling versus no oversampling? Is this marketing speak or is there a perceivable difference?
R2R can have audible difference in a lot of cases, I think that’s pretty well established. There’s slight differences in other DACs as well, it’s just aberrations or quirks or very small improvements more than these magical epic improvements people attribute to them that aren’t …possible. If it’s better is sort of the spin on R2R. There’s a case for it being inferior tech and there’s a case for it being preferred. It’s not something I’m interested in but I sort of view it like tube amps, if a person wants to pay for what it does it’s their money. I rarely see the R2R or tube amp people trying to spend newbie hobbyists money for them.
It’s absolutely inferior tech. I like the result, though. I think I’m running an Aries II.