But they should be by popular demand on Diy audio 🙂 I'm quite happy with the level of average consumer grade stuff since I couldn't afford FM radio in my youth .
Dynaudio I have a long time( 90’s). Here in the Netherlands we had a view shops who sell DIY speaker kits which you could listen before building. Thats when I liked the dynaudio sound. After that I build a view myself and bought ready build ones.
Just a warning, when you ones like the dynaudio sound signature, it is not possible to like something else. That was happening to me.
I had along time a 813 se tube amp as my favourit but going active I started with solidstate amps. A lot of building and listening get me to the purifi amps. Stil using and liking tube amps but for every day use and no compromises I ended up with hybrid class D. Had diy class-A, Hypex UCD and Ncore, lm3886, el34 PP and SE, KT88 PP and SE.
The hybrid purifi has the smoothness of a tubeamp without losing details and the best bass controll.
I do not select on measurements, only listen. But I use measurements to validate/optimize my own designs.
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That may be true in some cases. In my case I've started on a journey into the old multibit DACs with PCM56 and AD1865. The first chi-fi board I've tried is a cheap PCM56 one where I ran it into an ECC40 I/V tube stage. That instantly superseded my modded Musical fidelity V-DAC. The tonality improved and grand piano was particularly realistic. I've tuned my whole system to acoustic instruments and grand piano so it fitted in fine.
That the best devices should be available for close to nothing to serve the humanity and if that is too much to ask they should at least be offered to DIY community to experiment with for a few weeks before dumping it and going for latest tech 🙂
On the other hand its a 50 years old technology in the most researched part of audio reproduction nowadays with millions and millions of devices sold. Why there is even a sliver of turf for companies to able to sell tens of thousands of dollar worth DAC's when after all the research and investment over the decades the perfect DAc should be had for $200 max .
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That seems like a very philosophical position.
What if someone said the exact same thing except for DAC and $200, they said "luxury automobile," for $5,000 max?
I mean, a perfect DAC for $200, and a luxury automobile for $5,000 are both examples unrealistic cost estimation.
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In a capitalistic society you have the option to vote with either your wallet or feet and humanity revolves around it
It's not a comparable thing actually because material costs between the Luxury cars and everyday cars are substantial. I don't see it in expensive dacs.
The clocks for my dac, and they do make quite an audible difference, cost me $680/each (and I have measurements for each one showing why they are not $10 clocks). That's just for starters.
A top of the line dCS dac costs over $100,000. I don't know what that sounds like, but I sure know what my dac sounds like compared to an original Topping D90 which cost me around $700, and also compared to a Benchmark DAC-3 which cost $2,200.
For me, a $200 dac has not been invented yet that can be taken as seriously approaching perfection. Not even close.
A top of the line dCS dac costs over $100,000. I don't know what that sounds like, but I sure know what my dac sounds like compared to an original Topping D90 which cost me around $700, and also compared to a Benchmark DAC-3 which cost $2,200.
For me, a $200 dac has not been invented yet that can be taken as seriously approaching perfection. Not even close.
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It only hasn't been invented because there is no will to invent it or rather put it on the market.. What part in the clock justifies $680 price tag? How much the best and most advanced DAC chip cost retail? I know small scale production issue and luxury market demands. Nothing wrong with it but with billions of dollars invested in digital technology and research SOTA DAc should be a trivia solved years ago. It's an artificial problem not a technological one with manufacturing capabilities of today.
Its the whole of it. Its hard to make. Its labor intensive to make the S-cut crystal, etc.
Regarding the idea that billions of dollars invested should have fixed all the cost issues, the problem is with the physics. If you understand dac physics then you can start to see the nature of the problems that still have to be solved (although different people may disagree on some of the specifics, as there is still more work to do to reach a more unified view). You can also expect there will continue to be new patents and new technology invented as time goes on. Sigma Delta PWM is an example of a solution that solves some problems but creates new ones at the same time.
Of course its a complex area or you would already see Doug Self and Bob Cordell books telling all about how to diy it. There are no such books for dacs, and for good reasons. If you want to learn more about it, you would be welcome to PM.
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What is inexpensive?
Recently I bought a used Topping D90LE for 400 bucks including shipping. It sounds really good.
I also did buy a Nitsch Pietus Maximus with the Multibit DAC. That one is more expensive but still cheap for High End standards. I haven't had a chance to play it but my daughter has a Schiit Magni with the Unison DAC and it sounds really good, specially for its price.
https://nitschsound.com/products/pietus-maximus?variant=44126612816026
https://www.schiit.com/products/magni-unity
Recently I bought a used Topping D90LE for 400 bucks including shipping. It sounds really good.
I also did buy a Nitsch Pietus Maximus with the Multibit DAC. That one is more expensive but still cheap for High End standards. I haven't had a chance to play it but my daughter has a Schiit Magni with the Unison DAC and it sounds really good, specially for its price.
https://nitschsound.com/products/pietus-maximus?variant=44126612816026
https://www.schiit.com/products/magni-unity
Well , there are no books for DACs like there are no books how to build computers from a scratch using 5 nm technology and a solder iron.
I will surely get in touch once I'm $$ ready because I still struggle to justify saving for "old news" Weiss 202 which was the first modern DAC I experienced an "aha!" moment. It offered kind of relaxed presentation I did not know it existed in digital (obvious lack of exposure). The second time I got the glimpse of it was Bricasti DAC and the third was that damn Playback Technologies CD player. While I'm sure smoking a joint before listening session would bring me dangerously close to that feeling I'm partial to vodka which only deepens the state of hopeless melancholy 🙂
I will surely get in touch once I'm $$ ready because I still struggle to justify saving for "old news" Weiss 202 which was the first modern DAC I experienced an "aha!" moment. It offered kind of relaxed presentation I did not know it existed in digital (obvious lack of exposure). The second time I got the glimpse of it was Bricasti DAC and the third was that damn Playback Technologies CD player. While I'm sure smoking a joint before listening session would bring me dangerously close to that feeling I'm partial to vodka which only deepens the state of hopeless melancholy 🙂
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Ok , back to the subject of Chinese DAC's and modifying a request a little bit. Is there any regardless of price capable of clearly bettering (whatever it means for you) Theta Gen VIII MKIII behemoth ? This one is actually one of the few capable of receiving high bitrate PCM stream from SACD transport via LAN cable. Very old Dac , still selling as far as I know for as far as $15k on "one off" order.
Not sure what that means. SACD is DSD64, which is not PCM (CD is 16/44 PCM, for example). Do you mean SACD has been converted from DSD64 format back to CD format or some higher sample rate version of that type of format (PCM)? Or was DSD64 (SACD) sent by means of DoP (DSD over PCM protocol) over a LAN cable, or something more or less like that? Presumably we are talking about DoP, right?
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They made a few sets of Theta Compli transport /player & Theta Gen VIII mk3 with custom DSD / high speed PCM conversion bits (I see specialized E-prom chips in the slots) and I have have such set. They were prone to problems with that SACD fast connection and mine is also problematic due to Compli beginning to show the age.
Google search AI says this:
Theta Generation VIII Series 3
A DAC and pre-amplifier with a 24-bit/192 kHz digital-to-analog converter.
So if its 24/192 PCM dac (apparently a ladder dac?), then to play SACD it must convert SACD (DSD64) to PCM. It could do that with a digital low pass filter.
Theta Generation VIII Series 3
A DAC and pre-amplifier with a 24-bit/192 kHz digital-to-analog converter.
So if its 24/192 PCM dac (apparently a ladder dac?), then to play SACD it must convert SACD (DSD64) to PCM. It could do that with a digital low pass filter.
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