Multiple DAC Questions

[gman02]

Good afternoon , First post ! Question concerning DAC. Im lookin at either Topping D30 , smsl M 100 or the Sanskrit 10 edition . Thoughts help direction please. Current set up is Cambridge Audio am10 Nad 516bee cd , Elac debut 6 speakers. Reason for DAC is possible improvement in CD but really to pull CD's recorded on Windows 10 computer to be played thru system. Also all my cds are burnt to WMA at 192 quality . Im finding out about either WAV or Flac would the music sound much better than the WMA files ? Also I see up sampling higher than 24/192 will 24/32 384 sound better or any perceived difference at All..BUNCH of questions ? Thanks

 

[gman02]

also had thought about Modi 3

 

[lovinthehd]

Can't help you with stand-alone dacs like those, never used one. I read generally good comments about the Topping, SMSL & Schiit products, tho.

As to whether you'd hear an audible improvement over wma192 with something recorded losslessly, hard to know. Some can, some can't. These days with storage space so reasonable I just go with FLAC (has metadata advantage over WAV too). Up sampling a cd(16/44.1) to a higher bit depth or sample rate isn't going to improve anything, just putting lipstick on a pig so to speak (and cd quality is just fine).

 

[gman02]

ok ..lipstick on a pig ...cool , was wondering such ..thanks

 

[lovinthehd]

You might want to look at the extensive testing of various dacs that has been done here https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/master-index-of-audio-hardware-reviews.8184/

 

[gman02]

Thanks

 

[PENG]

Good afternoon , First post ! Question concerning DAC. Im lookin at either Topping D30 , smsl M 100 or the Sanskrit 10 edition . Thoughts help direction please. Current set up is Cambridge Audio am10 Nad 516bee cd , Elac debut 6 speakers. Reason for DAC is possible improvement in CD but really to pull CD's recorded on Windows 10 computer to be played thru system. Also all my cds are burnt to WMA at 192 quality . Im finding out about either WAV or Flac would the music sound much better than the WMA files ? Also I see up sampling higher than 24/192 will 24/32 384 sound better or any perceived difference at All..BUNCH of questions ? Thanks

The two DACs you listed do have better higher end chips (CS4398 in the D30, AK4452 in the SMSM M100) than the one in the NAD 516BEE (CS4392) but it may not result in better sound quality. Given what you have now, the speakers may well be the weak link, not the electronics. If you are going to play digital files from a PC such as a laptop, you can definitely gain the ability to play high resolution digital files via the Asychronous USB input on the external DAC. The D30 is DSD capable up to DSD128, the SMSM M100 can go all the way up to DSD512 but there aren't much files available at that sample rate, so really 128 and 256 are all you are going to end up using, and only if you don't mind paying for them, files at those resolutions, flac, wave, or whatever are not cheap.

If you are only going to use the NAD's coax or optical output to drive the external DAC, then I really don't see much gain, imo not worth the cost and effort.