DAC comparison

[RoA]

🤣🤣🤣

The placebo effect is incredibly strong, you can even tell someone they have received a placebo drug, and it will have the placebo effect.

I decided to replace my speaker cables, as they were very different lengths and a bit ugly. The new ones were nothing special, from KabelDirect, a reputable supplier. For days I heard a huge improvement in the sound when the two were compared. Gradually that impression vanished.

I was also convinced that speaker break in was real, and when I auditioned at home new Kef LS50 Metas, straight out of the box, I heard a gradual break in as expected. When I received my brand new pair, they sounded … the same. There was no break in. Okay, there might have been subtle changes, I can’t rule that out, but nothing obvious as per the supposed break in of the first pair. I suspect the brain initially adapts to the sound, if the treble is too high, it makes adjustments, just as if you wear glasses that turn the world upside down, over time the world rights itself.

With a good DAC the differences will be below the threshold of audibility. Cheaper ones will be audibly worse e.g. the one in the Wiim Mini. Of course a manufacturer of a boutique DAC could voice the frequency response, I don’t know if that happens.

I had a Chord Mojo. I compared it with the £10 Apple DAC dongle, and I couldn’t hear a difference, using a Sennheiser HD600 and an Audeze Sine. Some reviewers will tell you the opposite. To be fair it is incredibly different to perform such tests, and you really need to have two systems level matched to each other. Measurements confirm that they should sound the same, except that the Mojo can provide a higher output signal which can be important with insensitive headphones. The Mojo failed after 18 months, a piece of overpriced overhyped junk.

I agree with you, absolute level matching is required to do a comparison. Mojo 2 user here (it currently is doing speaker system duty). Not had any issues. FWIW and imho it's a well made, unusual product available at an affordable price for something made by a/ a high end company and b/ in the UK. Times have probably moved on and very good DAC/HP amplifiers are available, usually from China (no issue) and with off the shelf chips (no problem either). I use one for my HP system.

If I had one complaint about the Mojo 2 it is that it should have automatic input sensing, that's about it. Perhaps it could do with a balanced 4.4 instead of the second jack. Otherwise it's brilliant.

 

[Noddy]

I agree with you, absolute level matching is required to do a comparison. Mojo 2 user here (it currently is doing speaker system duty). Not had any issues. FWIW and imho it's a well made, unusual product available at an affordable price for something made by a/ a high end company and b/ in the UK. Times have probably moved on and very good DAC/HP amplifiers are available, usually from China (no issue) and with off the shelf chips (no problem either). I use one for my HP system.

If I had one complaint about the Mojo 2 it is that it should have automatic input sensing, that's about it. Perhaps it could do with a balanced 4.4 instead of the second jack. Otherwise it's brilliant.

I had to use fiddly and expensive cables when using it with my iPhone, horrible. I believe it works much better with Android phones.

 

[RoA]

I had to use fiddly and expensive cables when using it with my iPhone, horrible. I believe it works much better with Android phones.

I use it only either as a desktop DAC/HP amp or as currently, in a DAC only mode in my system. I did take it abroad with my previous phone (Android) but have not used it as a mobile unit since and I now use an iphone.

 

[Al ears]

I have a Chord Mojo and, had an Audiolab M-DAC. With my Focal Elegias plugged in, both sounded flat and lifeless, with a lack of punch when listening to my preferred prog and psychedelic rock music, really quite poor compared to the Pathos amp in my sig. However, how much is down to the DACs and how they are implemented and, how much down to the amplification, is impossible for me to say.

And again it depends on whether you are after a decent DAC or a headphone amplifier.....
I believe the OP was asking about the former.
This clearly demonstrates the failings when a manufacturer decides to try to pack more than one thing into a box, like a streaming preamp for example.
Invariably one of those items is inferior.

 

[ToppingSMSL]

You've got no chance of hearing differences between cables then

Well, quite

 

[Kutusov]

Just my two cents but in my experience a DAC has been the most significant upgrade in my system, speakers aside. It's also one of the hardest components to choose as a lot of them have to be bought online and without hearing it first.

I have a fully digital system, all my music is played from digital files stored locally and I do 0 online streaming. Because of these, I tend to think on the DAC as the very core of my system, everything else sort of gets changed around or upgraded around it.

That being said, I think you can and should have a DAC that fully satisfies you with all sorts of music. I know it's easy to tell someone what to do with their money but if I found myself with two DACs that I oscillate in preference, I would sell them both and get a DAC a couple of tiers above them. Something that will be better than any of two in every situation.

I never heard a Schitt DAC but from what I've read, by the fact one has to import them from the US and from online sound demos etc, I never really considered any of their products. I just mean by this that there are plenty of other choices and, IMO, better ones. I currently own an Holo Cyan 2, which to me is an incredible bargain. At around 1.5K I don't know of any other DAC that I would consider a clear upgrade for less than 4 or 5k. It's not a DAC I would feel at ease recommending though, it gets its bargain price in part for stripping a lot of things that might be important to most people. The two main ones being its NOS architecture (subjectively a plus for me) and there's no switching board for different sources. It's an automatic source process affair that seems not to work all that well from what I've read on forums. I have only one source, so it's not an issue in my particular case.

 

[ToppingSMSL]

I have a Chord Mojo and, had an Audiolab M-DAC. With my Focal Elegias plugged in, both sounded flat and lifeless, with a lack of punch when listening to my preferred prog and psychedelic rock music, really quite poor compared to the Pathos amp in my sig. However, how much is down to the DACs and how they are implemented and, how much down to the amplification, is impossible for me to say.

Actually it's quite easy to say. DACs tend to sound the same as each other as they tend to measure as audibly transparent.