Thanks to @vkennedy61 for the tip. You have used the shortest cut. Glad you like the sound.
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I am not familiar with either piece of kit, and I am not sure I understand the signal path you described, but there’s a pretty good chance one DAC is newer tech and is simply superior to the other.
DAC (and streaming/rendering) technology is moving faster than anything else I know of in Audio Land. DACs are improving so much and so fast there are now lot of instances where price is not a good, general indicator of performance.
I am resolved to maintaining a stand alone DAC for this reason. I figure the rest of the components in my system are likely to be longer lived.
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Here’s my understanding:
Previously, he used the internal DAC in MacIntosh C48 preamp. Now he’s using feeding the digital signal from server directly into Perfect Wave Dac, then the analogue signal from PWD into C48 preamp using balanced analogue interconnects.
Serhan, previousley I had optical from the A-500 to the C48. Is it true that all optical only processes 20-bit whereas coax is 24-bit? If so, might that also account for the improvement I am hearing besides the PWA?
In my experience, digital coaxial always outperforms optical. That combined with a standalone DAC resulted in the improvement you described.
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Depending on the quality of the optical cable and the quality of the recording (the quality, not the resolution), the switch to COAX might have had something to do with it. My experience is it is often a mistake to draw such general conclusions.