Rich. I followed a long thread on DACs over at audoiholics that was very interesting. It turns out that there is not that much difference in cost between the mid price and high end DACs anymore. I have often wondered what difference the DAC would make. Needless to say, it was hard to conclude who was right.
I wonder if anyone has ever done any blind testing?
I'm not aware of a study regarding DACs but my experience with them over the years is that there is a significant audible difference between a low end and better performing DAC.
The audible quality difference manifests itself in the specs. Better sounding DACs have higher n signal to noise ratios, flatter FR linearity, better clocking, less data rounding and therefore more resolution as well as lower jitter. It continues to be an area of considerable development with price points dropping for older DAC designs. DACs like all audio equipment exhibit diminishing incremental performance as you pay more for smaller improvements.
I recently spent several months auditioning standalone DACs before settling on a Benchmark USB DAC to go with a Squeezebox Duet I recently purchased. The Squeezebox comes with a reasonable Wolfson DAC but it isn't nearly as transparent, detailed and smooth sounding as the Benchmark.
