Thad, we are all familiar with your skepticism about the use of DACs and view that computer audio is all that one needs.
One question: have you heard a sound card based analog output in a highly resolving system? If yes, have you compared a top quality DAC in the same system?
That is not what my post was about. It was a series of answers to specific points.
I have compared a good sound card in a system that had a MRP of well over a thousand UK pounds (Hmmm, nearly two, I suppose) ten years ago (just for the CD, amp, speakers, which would cost at least twice as much now. There is
always more expensive kit, and someone can say there is always "better resolving" kit. As such, the
spend more and you'll hear the difference is an unbeatable argument. Yes, I know: If I spend more, I'll hear the difference: its part of my psychology
. Only thing is, the sound card that so impressed me cost 1/3rd the price of CD player I was comparing it with. It beat my psychology.
In
practical terms, so far as the hifi is concerned, I'd also rather have a CD player. Everyone/anyone can use it, for starters. So, I don't actually think that a computer is all one needs: there are other members here that have chosen to replace their CD players with a PC or PC-based media player, with or without stand-alone DAC.
The sound of my personal PC audio system has heaps of scope for improvement. I'm very well aware of that. Above all, it needs space, which is a practical rather than necessarily-expensive or exotic requirement. Unfortunately, that space would cost the price of a new house --- but without it, there is hardly any point in my getting started, for instance, on the path of dream speakers that I have in my head. So far as headphone listening is concerned, there will be improvements, and they may well include DAC/'phone amplifier, because I hope that my headphones are capable of better than I hear from the hp amp of my sound interface. If not, there will, I suppose, be better 'phones. Are any of immune from the upgrade bug? Or the marketing? Certainly not me.
There's plenty of room for stand-alone DACs, but lets be clear about their place in history, technology, quality, etc etc. One thing I really believe in is focussing expenditure on what you need. Originally, my PC did not replace my CD player or my turntable: it replaced my cassette deck*. I needed
I as much as I needed
O. If someone does not record, then why pay for an ADC when all they need is a DAC?
*(At the time, my line up, if I remember correctly, was amp, cd player, turntable,
two cassette decks, mini-disk deck, provision for connecting mini-disk portable, with a mixture of analogue copper and digital fibre (a choice in some instances, such as the PC) with a tape-source selector I could play from anything and record to anything that could. It was fun just having it all set up!)
