3 ms·
It doesn't matter how good your DAC is if your signal path includes scratching the sound waves into lacquer, stamping it into vinyl and scraping it with a stylu
by sjwright 8y ago
It doesn't matter how good your DAC is if your signal path includes scratching the sound waves into lacquer, stamping it into vinyl and scraping it with a stylus. Compared to digital distribution formats, it's utterly Rube Goldberg-esque.
Performance
Microphone
ADC
Processing
Mixing & mastering
DAC
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Scratched into lacquer
Electroplating
Stamping into vinyl
Scraped with a stylus
Phono amplifier
/
/
/
Amplifier
Speakers
Room
Ears
- cies 8y agoWell, all I'm saying is that it could... If you have a really shitty DAC for some CD player, or you have a really good DAC to convert it to record, it could be the DAC quality that creates a superior sound. All other factors always reduce quality; only the DAC may actually explain the improved quality. That's my point. Which I made jokingly.
- sjwright 8y agoYes you are right, vinyl might sometimes be better than horribly, catastrophically broken digital. In reality, bad DACs are uncommon, mostly found in disposable-grade consumer products and on computer motherboards. (And even then the problem is poor implementation, not a poor DAC chip per se.) Anything sold into the mainstream Hi-Fi or audiophile market is nominally perfect relative to our ears’ potential. More fundamentally I think you are overestimating how bad a DAC can be. The “bad DAC” is mostly a myth invented by the manufacturers of expensive DACs and their gullible customers. It’s a scam and far too many people have fallen for it. (Edit: To be more precise, these DACs aren’t scams, there is legit engineering going on, but they are pointless if your intent is listening to the output with human ears rather than test equipment.)