Over the past 4-5 years I've had approximately 15 - 20 DACs that I've heard and have had time to actually listen to.
The hardest thing for a converter to reproduce are the quiet parts and high frequencies. The quiet parts are reverb tails, room ambience and note decay. Cymbals and bell tones are the other thing that is difficult for a DAC to reproduce accurately.
When you're comparing DACs over $5k, things seem to get even harder to differentiate one from the other. You need to have everything else in your chain to be at it's optimum sonic ability, which also includes the room!
The first thing you will need are several digital files, of different genres and at different sampling rates. DACs have a "native" sampling rate where they perform their best. A DAC never sounds the best at all sampling rates.
Next you will need a program like Audacity, Sound Forge or Wavelab where you can place the files on seperate tracks and zoom into the bit level to line them up perfectly for fast switching. Most of these programs also have signal generators so you can level balance the outputs to within 0.1dB A good listener can differentiate between 2 files that are as close as .2dB apart with some material.
Next you will need a a way to get at least 4 tracks or 2 stereo tracks out of your computer at the same time. The Lynx Studio AES16 can do this as well as an RME AES32. You must use the same interface to both DACs that you are comparing to rule out any variables. We use AES/EBU. You can't use USB for one and Firewire for the other.
The things to listen for are described above. Do not listen to the "music", listen for the sounds. When I was over Gary's place and we had 2 DACs going at the same time, I was telling everyone to listen to the hi-hat. Just hone in on that hi-hat beat. Don't listen to anything else. Listen for the sticks striking the hi-hat. Listen to the decay. Does the sound just die out or does it decay over a second or so.
Close your eyes and listen to the room sound. Can you "feel" how big the room is and where the boundries are? On most Classical music, the engineers will record the room for about 5-10 seconds before the first note is played. Can you hear the room boundries? Can you sense how high the ceiling is and how deep the stage is?
All of these things are tough to reproduce. When you compare converters at this level, listening to music comes last.
The hardest thing for a converter to reproduce are the quiet parts and high frequencies. The quiet parts are reverb tails, room ambience and note decay. Cymbals and bell tones are the other thing that is difficult for a DAC to reproduce accurately.
When you're comparing DACs over $5k, things seem to get even harder to differentiate one from the other. You need to have everything else in your chain to be at it's optimum sonic ability, which also includes the room!
The first thing you will need are several digital files, of different genres and at different sampling rates. DACs have a "native" sampling rate where they perform their best. A DAC never sounds the best at all sampling rates.
Next you will need a program like Audacity, Sound Forge or Wavelab where you can place the files on seperate tracks and zoom into the bit level to line them up perfectly for fast switching. Most of these programs also have signal generators so you can level balance the outputs to within 0.1dB A good listener can differentiate between 2 files that are as close as .2dB apart with some material.
Next you will need a a way to get at least 4 tracks or 2 stereo tracks out of your computer at the same time. The Lynx Studio AES16 can do this as well as an RME AES32. You must use the same interface to both DACs that you are comparing to rule out any variables. We use AES/EBU. You can't use USB for one and Firewire for the other.
The things to listen for are described above. Do not listen to the "music", listen for the sounds. When I was over Gary's place and we had 2 DACs going at the same time, I was telling everyone to listen to the hi-hat. Just hone in on that hi-hat beat. Don't listen to anything else. Listen for the sticks striking the hi-hat. Listen to the decay. Does the sound just die out or does it decay over a second or so.
Close your eyes and listen to the room sound. Can you "feel" how big the room is and where the boundries are? On most Classical music, the engineers will record the room for about 5-10 seconds before the first note is played. Can you hear the room boundries? Can you sense how high the ceiling is and how deep the stage is?
All of these things are tough to reproduce. When you compare converters at this level, listening to music comes last.
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