External Dacs

I am currently running my ripped cd collection from the imac (24" 2009) into the Beomaster 3000 and out to a pair of Beovox 1700 speakers.

Would an external Dac be an improvement, or should I look to a dedicated source for the music or alternative speakers first?

Ideas welcome....and thanks in advance!

 

 

Speakers definitely first. They produce the greatest contribution to acoustic experience and quality! I doubt most could reliably tell the difference between adequate DAC and one costing thousands in a double blind test.

I will second that speakers will make the most improvement if you aren’t satisfied.

It also could depend on your source.

My experience with DACs has been with the CD4500 and BS9000. Both have only so-so onboard DACs IMO. Both were in systems that I had really dialed in and was accustomed to the sound. I was shopping for a sub-$500 DAC. I could only appreciate an improvement in listening experience on really well engineered albums and there it was really fun to hear. The rest of the albums I couldn’t tell if I had the DAC on or not.

+1 on swapping speakers first.  Even switching to a different amp/receiver than the BeoMaster 3000 would make a bigger difference than changing the DAC.  But if you're interested in a discussion of external DACs vs. the iMac (2009) DAC, see:

     www.head-fi.org/threads/imac-onboard-dac-vs-external.640264/

Thank you for the replies to my post. I will check out the link supplied.

however, moving away from DACs as a first priority, what would recommendations be for speaker upgrades or headphones?

Thanks in advance

 

 

Hi - I just posted about my experience of the equaliser in itunes - maybe give that a go as it can improve the sound. I use a Musical Fidelity DAC and it's quite good - couldn't tell any difference between that another one for the same price. I do agree with the others that the speakers will make a big difference.

Agree with the speakers - or an alternate route would be hi-fidelity headphones. I have the McIntosh MHP1000 which I preferred over the Audeze LCD-3, Sennheiser HD800 and Grado. But all of these are quite good, just depends on your personal preference. At a fraction of the cost of all of these, the Sennheiser HD600 is also a great choice.

A few years ago I did some controlled listening tests with a number of various DACs, some with fairly radically different technologies (16 bit 4x oversampled, 18 bit, 1 bit bitstream ones). I found that even before single or double blinding the test, once I level matched them it was impossible for me or the other test subjects to reliably tell any difference. A DAC's job is not that demanding, no matter how much different DAC companies talk about gilding the lily. Some low end DACs I believe do sound different, say the one in the Apple AIrport Express, and often ones in PC sound cards do, due to low quality analog circuits with noise and frequency response irregularities. Ones in PCs operate in a very harsh electromagnetic environment and often have poor analog output circuits.

It was quite an eye opening experience, as before the simple act of level matching they sounded quite different. One was a then popular, reasonably priced one which was a darling of the audiophile set who said it was better than most stand alone CD players. It also measured fairly hot in output, higher than most other DACs. Slight loudness differences are perceived by the human ear as quality differences, not loudness/level differences, and it seemed obvious to me this higher output level was deliberate on the designer's part. Not blaming him, if I wanted to sell people outboard DACs that's what I'd do.

Ariel:

I am currently running my ripped cd collection from the imac (24" 2009) into the Beomaster 3000 and out to a pair of Beovox 1700 speakers.

Would an external Dac be an improvement, or should I look to a dedicated source for the music or alternative speakers first?

Ideas welcome....and thanks in advance!

 

 

Hi Ariel,

In my experience as a very happy owner of multiple sets of Beovox 1702 speakers I would recommend, as Andrew has already, that you experiment with the iTunes equaliser to try and create a profile which suits your hifi.

Imo there's a fabulous warm but detailed sound on tap in those speakers you own, the weakness is your iMac. (I also have an iMac and play music through iTunes. The in-built equaliser is a great way forward.)

Julian

 

Aha! many thanks guys.

5 mins with theiTunes equaliser has made a difference already.

Next step a pair of decent headphones......... :)

Hmm... Grado, AKG, Sennheiser.....? mainly for ECM & Classical

 

Of course everybody will have an opinion, but for Classical & Jazz, where the best heavy bass isn't the top priority, I'd choose the Sennheiser.  If you can live with their open-back design letting out (and in) sound to the room, it will give you the best overall frequency balance thus the instruments will sound compared to each other as they do in real life.  I don't even use their most expensive models, the HD600 is fine by me.

For Classical & Jazz the AKG K701 is a real top choice! If you need more bass you should have a look at the AKG K712 pro.

You'll always make a good choice with an AKG, Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic headphone, especially as some models are meanwhile cheaper than B&O headphones and sound much better. I compared the H6 against a K701, K712 and the H6 has no chance. It does sound good, yes, but the AKG's are another level. As a B&O fan I keep the H6, too. ;-)

I own a pair of grado headphones....excellent

Which ones?

Is the build quality good?

 

regards 

Type p500 

They are made of wood.

 

As down on B&O as I have been lately, I can recommend the BeoPlay H6. My wife has a pair, and they are the most comfortable closed back headphones I've ever used, and sound very, very good. Hers are the original ones that some call bass shy, easily fixed with a touch of eq. I've not heard the 2nd generation ones though that allegedly have more bass, but I think they'd be worth a listen.