DAC sound better than CD player?

[toxcrusadr]

I just got a Music Hall 25.2 here at AK, my first DAC, and one reason is that I'm using an old Rotel CD player and thought maybe DAC technology had improved since the 90s. Other reasons too, such as hooking up my cable TV, and not really trusting whatever DAC is in the cableco's little box.

So this is a very fresh test. I used the coax digital out of the player to the DAC, and from there to the preamp. Analog output from the player is still hooked up to another preamp input. So all I had to do for an A/B test was flip a tape monitor switch on the pre.

Honestly there was so little difference that I was very surprised. Had another AKer over to try it out and he could tell a subtle difference - slightly brighter thru the DAC.

I guess I'll hang onto this old Rotel in any case.

 

[E-Stat]

I just got a Music Hall 25.2 ...

I have a very similar 25.3 and one very nice aspect of that unit is that the opamps are socket mounted - meaning easy peasy upgrade to FETs.

Click here for my journey.

 

[rwartner]

To me it is not a difference in sound it is all about the mechanics of playing music. I rip everything to computer and it plays 24/7. CD players don't work as well to do this. In the little testing I did, I couldn't tell the difference. The external DAC did not sound worse - so the convenience of computer juke box won.