I myself have listened to many different dacs and all of them have about the same specs but the expensive ones tend to sound clearer with less distortion. Is there some other way to measure a dac quality other than price?
I myself have listened to many different dacs and all of them have about the same specs but the expensive ones tend to sound clearer with less distortion. Is there some other way to measure a dac quality other than price?
Its the analog output stage, not the chip that is in it that makes the difference. The engineering that goes into the analog output and the signal path after the chip in the analog stage will make two DACs that have exactly the same chip sound different from one another!
This is apparent on iFi products, like the Gryphon and the Diablo. They both use a Burr Brown chipset, yet they sound different, with the Diablo having wider and deeper soundstage, better bass extension with cleaner notes, not to mention higher output power and a blacker background with sensitive headphones. Measures better too, with higher dynamic range, THD/N and SNR, leading to cleaner sound with larger differences between the softest and loudest notes.
The power supply is important too, this determines the noise floor of the DAC, and a lot more. The power supply filtering and the quality of components used there is another factor separating the cheap from the more expensive DACs, but I think its secondary to the engineering that goes into the analog output and how the chip is incorporated into the analog stage.