DAC Upgrade?

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:geezer::geezer:Like me, my Musiland MD-10/ Musical Fidelity V-Link combo is getting long in the tooth. Have recently noticed a number of DACs in the below $100 class from Fosi, FX,Dilvpoetry, and Topping that appear to be upgrade candidates.Any thoughts/ comments would be appreciated.:geezer:
 
DACs are some of the most boring things to upgrade. Unless what you have no longer meets your connectivity needs or is objectively terrible (*cough* audio-GD *cough*), there really is very little to be gained. Even an average performer would often be plenty good enough. If the MD10 performs anywhere near its specifications (which would have to be verified), it would be a perfectly fine DAC even by modern standards.

It still kind of depends on how exactly you're using the DAC. If it's run into a preamp or integrated amp, required dynamic range is very modest by modern standards (90-95 dB ought to be just fine, and that's not a range that anything but an ultra low power design is going to be proud of). A few DACs will start clipping below 0 dBFS, but even that could be accomodated by lower digital levels if needed. Going directly into a power amp may necessitate 110 dB or a bit more, depending on speaker sensitivity and power amp gain - if in doubt you'd be able to tell by hiss level, and a line-level attenuator would resolve issues with unfavorable combinations. No human being needs the entirety of more than 110 dB at any given time, and even that is being quite generous. (In terms of dynamic range for recordings, little more than 70 dB tends to be just fine.) Having excess dynamic range may give some extra flexibility for less than ideal system designs, but in practice 120 dB ought to be plenty and anything more is essentially irrelevant.

Now modern-day DACs may be boasting sample rates of a whopping 384 kHz, but let's be honest, absolutely nobody needs those for audio targeted at humans. It's only of interesting for niche applications, like if you want to use a high-quality software resampler and as little of the DAC digital filter as possible, or for radio applications or in research.

In short, DAC upgradeitis generally is a waste of money even for someone young. Now if your user name indicates your age, I'd be doubly skeptical. Most people's hearing would have seen better days at this point, and hearing aids may severely impair the enjoyment of music.
 
:geezer::geezer:Like me, my Musiland MD-10/ Musical Fidelity V-Link combo is getting long in the tooth. Have recently noticed a number of DACs in the below $100 class from Fosi, FX,Dilvpoetry, and Topping that appear to be upgrade candidates.Any thoughts/ comments would be appreciated.:geezer:


You might like one of these:
Buy Khadas Tone Board Generic Edition Hi-Res Audio XMOS ES9038Q2M DAC DSD256 384KHz 32 Bit Stereo Mobile Audio DAC - In Stock Ships Today!

Tone Board: Hi-Res Audio Board Designed for Music Fanatic.

They are under $100, and they do measure pretty well. Don't know much more than that.
 
DAC Upgrade

Thank you for your comments. The MD-10/V-Link combo is still performing well and uses the Pre-outs on my Yamaha Receiver to feed Biamped open baffle drivers. Source is a home built PC loaded with J River Media Center.

I guess "upgradeitus" is a natural outgrowth of the audio hobby therefore I appreciate your incites regarding DACS and yes, while not equipped with hearing aids (yet) my tweeters are not what they used to be.

Thank you again for your thoughts.
 
Almost all DACs start clipping when you play music in which the peak samples are normalized to 0 dBFS (meaning that the interpolated waveform has to exceed 0 dBFS), and a lot of music is recorded just like that. If there is an opportunity to reduce the digital level by a few dB before the signal passes through any kind of interpolation filter or sample rate converter, take it.

About high sample rates: are there any dogs, cats, guinea pigs or bats listening to your system or is it only you? Regarding humans, there is one strange Japanese article claiming that Japanese gamelan players have different EEGs depending on whether they listen to gamelan music bandlimited or not bandlimited to 26 kHz.
 
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