So much for my golden ears

[Diapason]

My new amp has an onboard DAC, and I was curious whether the Bluesound would sound better using its own DAC or the DAC in the amp. I can switch it from my seat at the touch of a button on the remote, it's completely seamless. But for a tiny click the playback is completely uninterrupted.

I can't hear a difference. Tried it on a few high res options. Nada.

My long-suffering and increasingly-bemused wife wandered in and so I demonstrated it for her. "But there's a clear difference", she says. I played it again, she looked at me like I'm crazy. Not for the first time.

FWIW she prefers the DAC in the amp.

[Fran]

Take it and bank it!!

I'd say let it all run for a while and judge again in a week or so

[Claus]

We have all been there! The silence from the forum is deafening...(pardon the pun)... My wife was a bit dismissive when I offered her my place in the community..... (not sure what to make of that)....

Maybe a support group is the way to go? Or is that what we are already doing? God it is hard to be an audiophile...

[Adrian]

Interesting observation Simon, I would suggest giving it a bit more time, perhaps different tracks, vocals, bass heavy etc etc all to discern if there is a difference you can hear based on genre.

Perhaps ask the wife what is the difference she can detect, that might help you focus your attention in where to listen to.

A few years ago I picked up a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 1. Must be 25 years old now. Surprisingly good IMO. Yet others who have heard it think it is nothing special!!

Bizarre eh!!

[hudo]

After replacing few different cheap-ish (100-300€) DACs for my headphone setup, I didn't hear much difference in any of them, or it was so small that I just didn't care. All were AKM based DACs. Then I tried Chord Mojo, and later my main DAC Schiit Yggi, and only then the difference was more than obvious.
IMHO, all those Direct Stream based DACs are very similar, at least from the same chip manufacturer (AKM has glossy sound, ESS is more metal, BurrBrown is wood, to use a famous analogy). Only going 1000€+ will they sound noticeably different, where they spent much more money on the analog section.

[Stereo Coffee]

Can she describe what she hears as the difference ?

[Diapason]

I can't remember what she said, but she certainly offered some thoughts at the time. We must repeat the experiment.

[markof]

In my office setup I recently moved from a chord mojo to a denafrips ares II r to r dac.
The difference is very noticeable, in part because the mojo is designed principally for headphone output, but mainly the denafrips seems much less artificial and processed than the mojo, giving a more "natural" overall sound in my system. The detail in the mids is pronounced but smooth and the soundstage and instrument separation is just fantastic in my near-field setup (sig. below).

A fine product if you get the chance to hear one.

Mark

[Georgi]

I'm thinking to get Denafrips DAC as well, but I'm looking at Venus II or maybe Pontus II, but will see. Many positive opinions I read about them for the last year, but I know only one friend of mine who bought Ares, but he is in Cork, so I bit hard for me to find time to go and visit him and hear the Denafrips product.
🙂