DSD and DAC upgrades

[rollo]

Jerome understand completely. I've been around for some time as well.
  It is easy to get on the latest and greatest train. I see most go sideways throwing money at their systems.
   Does spending more money mean better sound. Maybe ? Then if it does sound better then is the difference worth it.
   Good engineering and design is the ticket not eye candy. I would love to find a DAC/CDP that is better and less money. So far I have not, but keep trying.
   There are tradeoffs with every purchase. Mistakes as well. No one size fits all. All of this conversation is MOOT. Why ? Different system, room, synergy of such and most important our perception of the sound.
   No one can dismiss what one hears and likes. Just to many factors. All we can do if appreciated is recco what we hear and report it for ones information.
   

charles
 

   

[DaveC]

Jerome, so you bought an expensive piece of gear, had a bad experience, and through this you have come to the conclusion that expensive gear ALWAYS offers poor value for the money?

The fact is, it's up to you to do the research AND the listening, and it seems like you failed on both accounts. Just reading what you said, it's pretty obvious to me there was an issue with your preamp and it wasn't functioning perfectly. It might have been something as simple as a bad tube....

I have built my own pre and SET amp because I wanted control over design and parts, and I wanted to maximize my performance for the money I spent. I have done quite a bit of experimentation with both design and parts in my equipment, and I can tell you that both make a really big difference in the sound quality you get from your gear. I can also tell you that good quality parts aren't cheap, but are certainly worth it. Hopefully if you do buy an expensive piece of gear, the design, parts and construction quality are going to be top notch, but without knowing what you're looking at you may fall for gear that is overpriced and offers very poor value. Unfortunately, overpriced and poor value gear are very common in high end audio. That is one of the reasons I started selling my cables, they prove that top end performance can be reasonably priced... not cheap or "budget", but not thousands of dollars either. That's also the reason I like Schiit audio, they have a similar philosophy. I'm kinda surprised you went for the Teac over a perfectly good DAC that is made in the USA, DSD just isn't a big deal right now and their DACs are upgradeable while the Teac is not... and it's made in China.

I have selected and assembled every single part in my system, from the output wiring and RCA jacks in my DAC right up to the speaker drivers. The fact is, if you want the best possible sound quality, you ARE NOT going to get it from budget audio gear, it just isn't possible.

Also, your claim that people can't hear differences between gear is both insulting and ridiculous. I can hear obvious differences in resistors, capacitors and wiring let alone circuit design. The people who have bought my cables all have very similar impressions of how they sound... but I guess we're all delusional?   

It also seems like you're taking this stuff personally / way too seriously. It's just a stereo system... 

[jsaliga]

I guess we're all delusional?

Well you said it...

--Jerome

[DaveC]

I guess we're all delusional?

Well you said it...

--Jerome

I'm not going to get into a debate over what is audible and what isn't. Believe whatever makes you happy, whether it is based in reality or not. 

Looks like you closed your account anyway. You might want to look for a forum with members that believe all amplifiers, DACs and cables sound exactly the same. It's really not a big deal, differences between human beings can be pretty large and I do believe some people simply can't tell differences between a lot of gear, there's nothing wrong with that and I totally believe that they are stating their reality. The issue is when these people tell everyone else what they can or cannot hear.