Has progress slowed in DAC tech?

[Guest]

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The two most commonly cited specs for DACs appear to have hit a plateau
at 24bit/192khz. Does this mean that progress in this area has slowed?

To be blunt, if I spend $650 on an AV receiver will I be envying the DAC
tech and thus the audio quality of new models in a short time, or is
this a mature field?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"hoarse with no name" <no@2spam.com> wrote in message
news:no-1A4361.12105005092005@cnews.newsguy.com

> The two most commonly cited specs for DACs appear to have
> hit a plateau at 24bit/192khz.

That's far from being a complete spec for a DAC. Dynamic
range matters as well. Lots.

> Does this mean that
> progress in this area has slowed?

24/192 is the highest sample rate for which recordings are
generally available for.

It's also grotesque overkill compared to what the ear can
benefit from.

> To be blunt, if I spend $650 on an AV receiver will I be
> envying the DAC tech and thus the audio quality of new
> models in a short time, or is this a mature field?

I think you're majoring in minors.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

By definition, any time you buy a piece of electronics you're going to
envy the guy who buys one six months from now, and he's going to envy
you for having had it for six months before he did. Decide what you
want, buy it, then don't look at catalogs for at least a year.

But as others noted, the fact is that the numbers you're quoting are
already Plenty Good Enough for an AV receiver; they're probably better
than any signal you're going to feed into them.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 12:10:51 -0700, hoarse with no name <no@2spam.com>
wrote:

>The two most commonly cited specs for DACs appear to have hit a plateau
>at 24bit/192khz. Does this mean that progress in this area has slowed?

Well, a 24 bit resolution is already above Boltzmann limits for any real
world application, so who cares about more bits, except the SciFi channel ?

Regarding sampling rate, any properly designed and implemented digital
system above, say, 20 bits and 64 KHz sampling rate can be considered as
totally transparent. So who cares with quality 24/192?