DAC upgrades

[CageyH]

Since my last post, I have been reading a lot of reviews, and watching YouTube.
The differences seem very subtle, so I think an upgrade will require a significant investment.
Different will be much cheaper though.

[Jimbo]

Law of diminishing returns and listening improvements happens pretty quickly with DACs and once you are in the mid to higher tier this applies even more so.

My experience listening to DACS at all price points has resulted in my finding a lot more similarities between the sound of DACs rather than differences but to some those small differences in presentation especially when you take this into context of your own system, equipment and listening room may be important.

[CageyH]

The biggest difference I can probably make is better speakers, or should I say speakers better matched to my room.
That is going to be expensive, and won’t be happening any time soon.

If I can find a good deal on a 2nd hand DAC, I may buy an R-2R to keep for when I fancy a change.

[Jimbo]

The biggest difference I can probably make is better speakers, or should I say speakers better matched to my room.
That is going to be expensive, and won’t be happening any time soon.

If I can find a good deal on a 2nd hand DAC, I may buy an R-2R to keep for when I fancy a change.

Certainly my biggest ever upgrade by far was moving into a larger room and then buying bigger speakers. They made all my other upgrades seem very minor by comparison. Speakers are by and far the best way to upgrade your sound especially if you can integrate room acoustics at the same time which is what I have been doing for the past couple of years.

Not really spent any money at all on anything else apart from a tiny extremely cheap little DAC!

[Macca]

The biggest difference I can probably make is better speakers, or should I say speakers better matched to my room.
That is going to be expensive, and won’t be happening any time soon.

If I can find a good deal on a 2nd hand DAC, I may buy an R-2R to keep for when I fancy a change.

You have good speaker already, what about adding an EQ unit? At least it has the capability to make some real difference, maybe even an improvement.

The last couple of systems I have heard that were using very expensive DACs (Chord, DCS) did not sound very good. Nothing wrong with the DACs of course, but despite their price tags (the DCS stack was into six figures) they couldn't fix what was wrong.

[Ali Tait]

The biggest difference I can probably make is better speakers, or should I say speakers better matched to my room.
That is going to be expensive, and won’t be happening any time soon.

If I can find a good deal on a 2nd hand DAC, I may buy an R-2R to keep for when I fancy a change.

I do like the Gustard R26 I got recently, prefer it over the Mytek I used to have.

[CageyH]

The problem is hearing one first.

[CageyH]

Certainly my biggest ever upgrade by far was moving into a larger room and then buying bigger speakers. They made all my other upgrades seem very minor by comparison. Speakers are by and far the best way to upgrade your sound especially if you can integrate room acoustics at the same time which is what I have been doing for the past couple of years.

Not really spent any money at all on anything else apart from a tiny extremely cheap little DAC!

I will be moving into a much bigger room when I retire. New speakers will be required then. Until that point, I think the triangles will do nicely.

I have a few acoustic panels for the 1st reflection zone, but I know my room is far from optimal.

EQ is a thought though.

[Macca]

EQ is absolutely worth a try.

After a lot of playing about with mine I've settled on just one minor adjustment. But it's like a speaker upgrade. So much so I regret I did not try it years ago.

We have similar speakers in terms of 'sonic presentation' (There were some Triangles at the last NEBO and I was struck by just how similar they are even in a totally different room) so it might work for you too.

[CageyH]

I shall order myself a microphone soon.
It will come in useful for the home cinema system too.