Originally Posted by
Macca
Sometimes hard to distinguish between a DAC of higher quality and one that just presents the sound the way you like it. Most people would rate a DAC with a presentation that they like as 'better' than another, but this is entirely subjective and will vary from system to system and individual to individual.
If you add a DAC to a CD player perhaps you will prefer it to the CD player DAC, perhaps not. bear in mind that the DAC will have its own analogue output stage and - IMO - this is where the main differences in DACS is created, the type of chip used is of lesser importance. The quality of the analogue output stage will affect the quality of the sound.
DACS are 'voiced' the same way as most hi-fi components, and you may like the voicing or you may not, but this should be considered separately to the quality of reproduction that the DAC may or may not be capable of. Two different things.
DACs with high quality analogue output stages tend to be expensive, same with CD players.