Thread: Dac-50
View Single Post
  #44  
Old 04-08-2021, 05:16 PM
C4STR0 C4STR0 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 31
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by meltemi View Post
The signal flow is: source > (room correction) > upsampling > DAC.

The Vivaldi Upsampler does network streaming and upsampling of all sources connected to it (upsampling from standard PCM to high def PCM, DXD and DSD; signals must then be fed to a DAC, which can handle these formats). DC-81 DAC can only handle 16bit 44k or 48k.

I have not heard the DAC-50, only the units I mentioned (and owned).

FYI (off topic)
dCS offers three systems: Vivaldi (four separate units or one box), Rossini (including optional CD transport or with separate SACD transport) and Bartok (including optional headphone amp).
All three systems feature network streaming, upsampling and proprietary technology DAC (Ring-DAC).
www.dcsltd.co.uk
Yeah dCS offers nice gear. In the $10k+ range, i honestly would account for aesthetics as a big part of it as well. Something like Nagra gear which looks like it belongs in an 80s NASA space shuttle. I just love the aesthetics. Accuphase for it's vintage look as well.

So, on the DAC-50, i do hope i'm not disappointed. Like i said, it's rarely spoken of in web searches. The top search result is someone who spoke of it's harshness and sibilance, 1 mention of it getting better after burn in and then finally saying he could never enjoy it and purchased a different DAC. I did see some say the Accuphase board options perform at a $2k to $4k DAC value. This topic is the longest on the DAC-50 and it was mostly spent saying to purchase other dedicated Accuphase DACs over the DAC-50.

Cause for my concern? I have used foobar2000 for so long and i came across an article speaking of the sound quality differences in certain software players. I went ahead and tried Roon for the first time and upsampled everything to DSD512 with the Ares II and i'm extremely impressed. Where upsampling to DSD on foobar sounded lean and sucked the life out of the music, Roon DSD upsampling actually sounds full bodied and highly detailed with no digital glare. On Foobar with PCM, the Ares II did nothing that the DAC-10 was giving me(hence DAC-50 or older Accuphase DAC curiosity), but w/ Roon and upsampled to DSD the Ares II takes a big leap over the DAC-10. I haven't tested PCM vs PCM between the 2 dacs on Roon.

I'm now wondering how this:


at more expensive cost, could outperform this:


I don't know anything about the tech side of things, but it's not logical to my little brain.

We'll see how it goes. Maybe the jump from the DAC-10 to DAC-50 is a massive leap? This little r2r dac is reminding me why i told myself i'd only buy NOS r2r dacs from now on, and yet here i am waiting on a little delta sigma pc board dac for several hundred more than the Ares II cost me.

Last edited by C4STR0; 04-08-2021 at 05:19 PM.
Reply With Quote