I Tried 100 Audiophile DACs to find out if they are a waste of money

Geat video.
By the way how to compare with Zidoo NEO S?
People talk less about NEO S while Everso is made by parent Zidoo

Have always questioned DAC's, granted they consist of a tremendous amount electronic parts inside. I do it the cheap EZ way. Commercial Free FM Jazz station, top of the line 1970's analog FM Tuner (Digital Tuners SUCK-Tin Can sound) Pioneer TX 9500 mkii, Accuphase T-101, Kenwood KT9900 (Have 20 FM Tuners-addiction) with a Integrated Amp. This is my preference Sound.

source first

my current list of top 3 dacs : SMSL SU-1, SMSL su1, SMSL SU1...each one costs $79.99 and equally amazing...at the end of the day, the musical experience is just a faded memory with any DAC, just chill and enjoy the music and stop the audio-neurosis

Hi, thanks. Hope one day you'll let us hear the gear that surrounds you. I mean we don't take a kid into a candy shop and then talk about what candy tastes like without buying some candy, right?

I thought you were going to review DACs here but instead I got a good understanding of how DACs work within the parameters of the overall system. Thanks for the perspective.

Hey Jay,
Pls adv n upgrade my dolby atmos speakers system match to my AV Receiver Onkyo tx rz - 50 9.2 channel. Currently I am using Klipsch 5.1.4 reference cinema system dolby atmos. Pls up grade my system, it should be punchi and vocal should be clear and crispy for both music n film.
Awaiting reply.
Thank you and beat luck for ur bright future.

I dont get why this is controversial or even a topic og debate. Of course you can hear a difference between DACs because they are also preamps - the DAC chip itself is just one of many components in the dac (However an important one). The analogue section of a dac is just as important - so is the digital section before conversation.

💯 % right. Gear, room + set up. In my case my hifi is set up in my small living room. But with both heresy iv and KLH model 5 I could clearly hear a difference between amplifiers and DACs. Holo spring 3 KTE is an amazing DAC but I think what we need to learn is that that’s the price it takes for goosebumps hifi. Ultimately I sold the spring 3 and returned to Ares II. Now I have JBL 4309 and now differences are more difficult to hear.

My tube power supply and output stages of the ARC Ref CD9 along with the four DAC’s per channel fully balanced is the best DAC I’ve heard. YMMV.

100? The brands you mention don’t add up to 100 DAC’s. But heck…I’m sure you will link to your list of DAC’s listened to.

Dacs have amplifiers to boost the signal to line-level, correct?
So that little amplifier could affect the overall sound of the dac

Most times when you buy an upgrade (DAC or anything else) for a substantial amount of money, you will hear an improvement just because you spent all that money. Not that there really is one, just because you would feel awful otherwise. It’s all psychological.

the problem is not the dac but the cd sound wich is horrible in most of the titles

Get an High-End USB cable instead of upgrading your DAC😄

All u need is a musical fidelity v90 dac...done.

hey man, great stuff, i'm 23 and most of the time reviewers are older dudes who can't hear shit above 17khz and never experience ear fatigue and most of the time will qualify bright fatiguing sound as detailed and neutral, i think alot of younger people like you and me will prefer tube sound signature because in my belifs they make sound less fatiguing for some of them. let me know what you think about that

Hi Jay, may I take ur opinion on what dac would go best with kef R11? I m currently using a burmester amp and preamp and using a hifirose RS350 as digital transport.

Has anyone heard an Ayon DAC? What did you think about it?

One DAC I never see mentioned by hardly anyone ever is the Heed Abacus, I think that’s a shame

In my audiophile life I had may DAC. Now I have been using an old old Goldmund Memesis 10P and Bryston BDA1 along with a battery powered Brik DAC. I also had many other DAC including Krell, Wadia. So my take is that since all DAC will need to convert digital to analog sound so the analog stage actually makes a huge difference in sound. Sure, the new DAC which I auditions sounds similar because they rely way too much on the chip solution rather than also put design and money into the analog stage like older high end models did. I still very much enjoy the Goldmund, of course it cannot play hi-res files and streaming but if you have material of CD quality then try to get hold of one of those old DAC like Goldmund, Theta, EAD, Wadia, Krell etc you'll see what I mean and they are addictive and very analog sounding.

use equalizer or preamp tone control is much more easy to get good sound😊

What’s does jay’s iyagi even mean?

Do you hear the deference between a 24 bit dac vs 32 bit?

try ideon audio 's products special the ion dac you find not so easy in us but worth it , thanks for nice videos

I choose based on the remote control and how many filter settings there are :)

Speakers will make the MOST significant difference.
Focus on speakers first and the rest components follow properly

I am lucky that I have been working in Hifi / Car-audio / Pro-audio business, so I can confirm your explanation.
But I want to add that it is also applicable on phono pré amps, and it has a lot to do with the output stages and how different configurations of output stages react or couple with your amplifier input stages.
In my opinion the term DAC is not the right term for standalone dacs it is actually a DAC pré amplifier, because the DAC is only the chip with some electronics tot run / control / couple it with a pré amplifier board.
In the stand alone DACs you ad an extra pré amplifier and it depends on the brand caracter, and the design choices that the engineering has to make to meet the budget in designing it.
And especially when a brand wants a very specific sound caracter it can go in every direction, the warm sound with tubes for instance or a really transparant and highly resolving sound. Some brands really do this in purpose to make them stand out of the crowd, their sound signature might actually not be the technically best but it sells because our ears and taste are different.
And on the other hand there are lots of products with very good and proven, lets say schoolbookdesigns that sound very good.
For most people a middle price range product is the best choice, for both DACs and Phono pré amps. And the really expensive and exotic brands are not always better but very often different, and if you whant to spend thousends of dollars on that, be my guest.

Cuándo el equipo de sonido comienza a tener niveles estratosféricos de calidad y nos metemos en marcas inalcanzables como Hegel, accuphase y altavoces que valen igual que un coche, el Dac es lo de menos en la cadena. Las diferencias entre unos y otros son diferencias de ecualización y son siempre mínimas. No vale la pena meterse en un DAC de 2000 € ni de 1000. No hay diferencias. Y con los chinos ya ni te digo. La lucha entre dacs es una pérdida de tiempo y de dinero

You explained this very well. I'm using an Denon DRA-800H AVR and a Emotiva BasX A2 power amp. Using Preouts on Zone 2 (on AVR no other preouts) into the BasX. One thing I noticed is the sound is flat compared to speakers connected to the AVR (DRA-800H). Is this because the preout cleans up any sound processing that happens within the receiver like the Preout is not full range..? If so how can I go about getting that big sound into my power amp? Do I need a DAC in between the Preout on the AVR and the power amp? Thanks to you or anyone who can help answer my q's.

I think you could have shortened that by about half, Jay.

The Denafrips DACs n DDC are good for the money. Furthermore they provide an update to the FPGA firmware free of charge so it doesn’t become obsolete in todays fast moving DAC world.

Just as you say: its trial and error.
I´ve needed 30 Years to build my system.
With eye on the money.
So i buyed most of my gear second hand.
And now in 2023 with my age of 66 years i´m listen with
Classe CP-700 and CDP-202, with a Krell KSA-200S, with SMSL M-300, Primare NP-5
and a Pair of Duntech Princess C-5000.
There is no need for significant changes.
It´s Time to relax and enjoy the Music in state of restless searching.😀

Audio Note Fifth Element. Boom.

I ended my DAC game with the RME ADI 2 FS

First of all, neutrality should be the over arching goal. That way, you can buy one component to get your color. Otherwise you are chasing your tail, as you said, the Holo would be fine in a neutral system if you want to darken things up. The higher end Lampizators are neutral, but make Holo sound like a toy. Timbre is dead on, details are there, but not bright. Want dark, get old Vandersteen 2CEs. You can modify the under 6K Lampizators to get great sound, but most won't. The DHT units are best.

I used to feel that DACs, outside of the difference between technologies like delta sigma and R2R, shouldn't make a significant difference outside of the noise floor
Then I had a thought: If DACs purely convert digital signals into analog signals, then why are the Chromecast Audio and HiFiBerry DAC so much louder than the Apple Dongle (Connected to a PC) when they all run on the same amount of power?
There's more to a DAC than just the chip, there's an amplification stage inside the DAC that occurs to make the output usable with other equipment, particularly headphones, and when that's taken into consideration, it makes sense that DACs can change how the signal sounds even when they're using the same technology to do the conversion. This is most apparent with tube DACs as you can easily see what is being used for that amplification stage.

Who is your hair stylist ?.......Lady GAGA ?

Holo May 2 it's absolutely amazing dac 😊👍

I love my Denafrips Ares II 12th dac (R2R technology for 3D live/realistic sound). Way better than my previous two DACs Topping E50, Topping E70.
Today I ordered the Denafrips Iris (a DDC) to give my Denafrips Ares II 12th the best source.

For 23 years in the hobby, I've always had dome tweeters.
Last year I auditioned Wisdom p4i speaker with an AMT tweeter and I found that the sound quality is better than even the $90k-$300k Wilson Audio speakers I auditioned at the same store. So I was on a quest to find thin-film tweeters (ribbon, AMT, planar).

I recently bought GoldenEar BRX speakers with AMT tweeters. I love it so much that I bought a 3rd GoldenEar BRX to replace my center channel in a 7.2.4 home theater setup.

What's amazing is that previously I bought better RCA cables/interconnects by Worlds Best Cables (mogami wire and Neutrik plugs) from Amazon but I did not hear an improvement with my old speakers (titanium dome tweeters with neodymium magnets, 91 db sensitivity).
But now I do hear an improvement with the GoldenEars BRX in the high notes, female vocalists, cymbals, bigger soundstage, and more airy.
So I've ordered speaker cables by World's Best Cable from Amazon with Mogami 3082.

Also with my old speakers and RCA interconnect and Apple Music, I could not hear an improvement with hi-res lossless such as "Michael Jackson's Billie Jean" via USB cable but now I do hear an improvement with the new GoldenEar BRX and Worlds Best Cable RCA interconnect.

source=Apple Music (hires lossless, and spatial audio surround music) and Denafrips Ares II 12th dac (R2R technology for 3D live/realistic sound).

This is a question, not a strongly held view point. If you have a system (all components) which are "accurate," can any device be inserted in the chain which can add "warmth?"

For example, could an equalizer, be it analog, graphic, digital, DSP, or whatever allow you to change the curves increasing the "warmth?" By way of example; When a guitarist wishes to change the characteristics of their guitar they have electronic devices which shape the sound to their liking.

If you can shape the sound using a device in the chain, would it not make sense to get the most accurate/neutral components possible and use a sound shaping device to tweak the entire system to your taste?

BTW, I saw you briefly at Florida Audio Expo. I was in a room where you were asking the vendor to play some vocals, I suggested "Ella Fitzgerald," but I had to duck out immediately thereafter. If you can remember, what did they end up playing?

In general audiophile should look into equipment with surface mount technology, and then tweak with speaker cable, power cable and other interconnect cables. And then speaker placement and then other tweaks. Surface mount technology, give you a best, possible perfection of all equipments. All the other tweaks should let you find out the perfect sound for yourself IMO

Brow just relax and switch off your analytical brain and enjoy the music.

I personally have the philosophy that coloration should be minimal and done not in the amp and preamp but in the source and of course the speakers.
So I choose DACs on the small amount of coloration they bring to my system. I don’t bother with coloration on my amp and preamp. I use benchmark products there.

Maybe I’m wrong , but I like following that approach.

Hi Jay Thanks for the detailed video. Can you please suggest me a DAC up to AUD500 to compliment my Marantz SR7012 and JBL ES90 speakers set up. Many thanks Antony

now I have a headache. me myself and I are fighting and nobody is winning our discussion.

If you’re streaming music through a dac an internet switch with a decent power supply can affect the sound as much as changing a dac. Everything in the chain matters.

None of the Topping, SMSL dacs that you find so similar don't come anywhere close to the AN, Denafrips or Holo dacs you show in your room. Its probably because they are targeting a certain price range and so sound very similar. If they do a $6k dac it would probably sound similar to your dacs.