Question What would you pay for a decent DAC, and I mean DAC not preamp or headphone amplifier??

[Al ears]

I have often looked at the prices of DACs thinking that sometime in the future I may have to buy one.
What would you consider paying for one and what differentiates the cheap from more expensive?
can they really perform so much differently seeing that their main purpose is simply to convert an analogue signal to an analog one?
I was really interested in the latest HiFi Rose RD160 until I saw the price
Is this madness??

 

[Cork]

Probably not what you were looking for, but - nothing. I'm completely satisfied with the DACs in my Yamaha receivers.

 

[Al ears]

Probably not what you were looking for, but - nothing. I'm completely satisfied with the DACs in my Yamaha receivers.

sort of in the same situation currently. My amp has a DAC that I don't use. The one in my Oppo 105 is utilised to playback from an external USB hard drive.
What is to gain from adding an external DAC costing £4700??

 

[podknocker]

If a £40 DAC can resolve any format and send an accurate, noise free waveform to the next circuit, why would anyone need or want to 'upgrade' to something costing nearly £5000?

The DAC in my Omnia is doing what it is required to do and I know it's not the only necessary component in the system. I very much doubt anyone could tell the difference between 2 DACs, with ALL other things being equal.

I think the most expensive DAC chip is around £50 and from AKM. You need so many more chips and parts to turn your data into music.

AKM make so many chips!

Audio D/A Converters | Audio Components | Products | Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)

AKM’s audio D/A converters (DACs) provide solutions for high quality audio system with the original digital-analog mixing technology.

www.akm.com

 

[Cork]

... What is to gain from adding an external DAC costing £4700??

My sentiments exactly. Both the OPPO and Yamaha use versions of ESS Sabre DACs, which are decent products. I don't think throwing money at a DAC is going to improve anything in my system. If I weren't so lazy, room treatments would probably get me the biggest bang.

 

[Al ears]

My sentiments exactly. Both the OPPO and Yamaha use versions of ESS Sabre DACs, which are decent products. I don't think throwing money at a DAC is going to improve anything in my system. If I weren't so lazy, room treatments would probably get me the biggest bang.

I guess there are purists that would say if you need room treatment you bought the wrong system but, in modern homes you may have a point. This is something I would be very hard pushed to get past the better half....

 

[Gray]

What would I pay?
I have paid under £100 for what I consider to be a very decent DAC.

Some people like R2R DACs for their more 'analogue sound' (their words not mine).

You may have seen this reviewer. I like him - even if he does have a cable believers mindset.
If nothing else, he's heard loads of DACs - and always makes logical value comparisons.
The latest two he's reviewed cost more than I would consider paying - I haven't heard them, but I'd be amazed if I preferred their sound to my Khadas Toneboard in a blind test.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH3L1JOAOaw

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hODejPW2srw

 

[Gray]

If I weren't so lazy, room treatments would probably get me the biggest bang.

There's no probably about it cork - don't be lazy

 

[daytona600]

£10 Chi-Fi to Wadax £400,000

 

[Vincent Kars]

what differentiates the cheap from more expensive

The more expensive ones have a higher distortion level: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ti-m1se-stereo-dac-review.52782/#post-1905562