In Reply to: DA or AD more critical to sound? posted by tantra on March 21, 2007 at 15:32:56:
I think the A/D is more-critical, simply because unlike the D/A, you cannot fix a bad A/D- It's etched in stone on the media. The playback (D/A) is the one thing we can adjust.That said, I also think the D/A is much harder to execute effectively. In my opinion, the proportion of good recordings (A/D) is **far** greater than the proportion of good consumer D/A converters. Of all components used in building audio systems, I say the D/A section of digital playback, by and large, is easily the most-disappointing across-the-board. So much so that many have been discounting CD playback as inferior or overrated, thinking the medium itself isn't capable of producing audiophile-quality sound. But the small percentage ( < 5% ) of D/A converters that do get the playback right, the sound is satisfying to the point where the urge to go to high-resolution digital playback goes away, almost completely.
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Follow Ups
- Re: DA or AD more critical to sound? - Todd Krieger 10:48:36 03/22/07 (0)