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Re: Anyone using a DAC? Which ones? Diminishing returns on vintage speakers?

MUDDFISH
 

I usee a music service like spotify or tidal I use the premium plan ..
As you get older and loose hearing finding music to hear at your fingertips is priceless.? Don't get me wrong, I still have preamplifier,? amps and speakers. Solid state and tubes stuff but what I value now is time. If a song or album? pops in my mind and I just want to listen to it, I can just use spotify? find it with a cluck of a button and press play.
The bluesound node is a bluetooth streamer. It can pick up the signal from your phone or computer? and can be totally wireless from your source.


On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 8:49 AM, George Ahlborn
<the_ahlborns@...> wrote:
Here’s an interesting video talking about using vintage, audio speakers with today’s modern DACs and DSP:



Regards
George?

On Dec 19, 2023, at 6:41 AM, russ jackson <rjackson@...> wrote:

?I've been down a similar road, I just got back into it a couple of years ago...? I used my laptop for music and my wife streamed.? I ended up getting a Dragonfly DAC which was slightly better than the laptop (iMac and iTunes Library).? I thought this sounded great, and it did sound good (DQ10s with a Mcintosh MC4100).? Then I upped the power with a Crown DC300A II, used the Mcintosh as a preamp, and the DQ10s sounded even better.? Then for kicks I used a super cheap Sony CD player and spun some discs, and was amazed at the difference...? my library was compressed and I didn't know what I was missing.

I'll interject here and ask how you've saved your music files?? If they aren't totally lossless, then changing your source is probably one of the the biggest gains you can make?

When I realized that the source made so much difference I bought a decent CD player ($100 used) Denon DCD 820 with a great DAC chip... and OMG...? now I get it!? And the DQ10s sounded amazing!? I still had issues with bass and clipping if I tried to crank it up, until I ran across an Adcom GFA 555 II...? completely changed the soundstage and gave me headroom.

Now I have DQ W1s, and both a passive and active crossover to choose from, that are being gone through with my local tech...? I'll hook those up early next year and can't wait to hear/see the improvement!? I've also got a Krell Standard SACD player that I got at an auction (cheap), it was DOA but the same techs are trying to bring it back to life...? if they succeed, I have no doubt it will be another leap.

Basically all this to say, your DQ10s will only sound as good as your source file!??

Also... over the last two years I've gone to Chicago (no place in Louisville except Best Buy and Home Theater stores) and listened to quite a few systems, some very high end... and to get to the sound of my modest DQ10 system, I'd have to spend 10s of thousands...? I've got less than 4k invested, including everything I mentioned.

NOTE? My opinion, if you're hoping to get a sizable gain with a cheap DAC, probably not worth it...

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