Has digital audio plateaued?

J

jadedavid

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For the past several years it seems like there was a plethora of new and greatest DAC's being introduced.
Along with renderers, servers and players of all sizes and shapes.
Now not so much. It's like the dust has settled and now we get to actually sort out what is good. from that flurry of products.
But,has the digital technology reached a temporary plateau?
I have friends with upgrade "itus" but don't want to jump in with yesterdays technology if tomorrows technology is just around the corner.
Any thoughts or insight on the digital horizon?
 
The
jadedavid said:
For the past several years it seems like there was a plethora of new and greatest DAC's being introduced.
Along with renderers, servers and players of all sizes and shapes.
Now not so much. It's like the dust has settled and now we get to actually sort out what is good. from that flurry of products.
But,has the digital technology reached a temporary plateau?
I have friends with upgrade "itus" but don't want to jump in with yesterdays technology if tomorrows technology is just around the corner.
Any thoughts or insight on the digital horizon?
Click to expand...

I don't agree with your assessment. The digital juggernaut is rolling on. And remember, the trend at the top of the heap is making digital "future proof" so when new technology comes out, you can just swap out a module and be current. And the old cliche about wanting to wait to hop on the upgrade train is as tired now as it always has been. People used to say the same thing about computers. While it's true that if you buy the latest and greatest computer available today, better ones are on the drawing board and your new purchase will be surpassed by technology within 6 months. At some point you have to hop on the train or you will always be left at the station watching the digital technology train pass you by.
 
Look at what has happened in the purely analog world over the last ~15 yrs; what was supposedly a “mature” technology has made more than incremental improvements. Then look at ADC and DAC, both from a technological standpoint as well as a scientific one. There is so much continuously being learned and developed, almost as I write; IMHO a “plateau” in the forseeable future is unlikely. Yes, there may be periods of a few months here and there where there are no obvious significant advances, but I would suggest not drawing too many conclusions during one of those.
 
rbbert said:
Look at what has happened in the purely analog world over the last ~15 yrs; what was supposedly a “mature” technology has made more than incremental improvements. Then look at ADC and DAC, both from a technological standpoint as well as a scientific one. There is so much continuously being learned and developed, almost as I write; IMHO a “plateau” in the forseeable future is unlikely. Yes, there may be periods of a few months here and there where there are no obvious significant advances, but I would suggest not drawing too many conclusions during one of those.
Click to expand...

I agree with you and Mark. I don't see a digital plateau at all. Digital progress has been tremendously exciting in recent years, and I don't see it slowing down.

On the flip side, the constant progress makes me wary of a major monetary investment in a DAC. MSB for example has promised upgradeabilty in the past, but those promises have fallen flat, to the anger of some customers. Let's see how it works out this time, until then I'll probably sit on the sidelines.

In the meantime I am super happy with my not so expensive Yggdrasil Analog 2 DAC (Yggdrasil current production). Especially now that, with my new Octave HP 700 preamp, I can hear what it really can do. It's sensational.
 
It hasn't plateaued, IMHO, but you're going to have in jump in sometime if you're considering upgrading.

Or not. If you're happy with what you have and your system provides an engaging and enjoyable experience, why upgrade?

I've been "tweaking" my digital streaming front end, mostly to make it much more robust to dropouts, which were a major issue in my previous configuration, but I haven't upgraded my preamp in 7 years and my power amp in 8, my speakers in 10 years, and I have no plans to. Sure, I could spend a lot of money on new pre, amp and speakers, but IMHO, they will only provide a different musical experience but very likely not a more satisfying one.
 
Al M. said:
MSB for example has promised upgradeabilty in the past, but those promises have fallen flat, to the anger of some customers. Let's see how it works out this time, until then I'll probably sit on the sidelines.
.
Click to expand...

Say what? They were still doing Analog dac upgrades last year - it came out 6-7 years ago.
 
This hobby is filled with “across the board” options that keep coming in quality and price.


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My 70 year old ears love my Lumin X1. I am sure as time goes by there will be incremental improvement in digital audio, but it is pretty darn good now.
 
Al M. said:
Upgrade to what? A Discrete?
Click to expand...

New renderer card with Roon endpoint and MQA support. Also a firmware upgrade was made available in March of this year.

If your point is that MSB doesn’t replace its ldder dacs inside of its machines, that isn’t part of the bargain with any dac on the market.
 
KeithR said:
New renderer card with Roon endpoint and MQA support. Also a firmware upgrade was made available in March of this year.

If your point is that MSB doesn’t replace its ldder dacs inside of its machines, that isn’t part of the bargain with any dac on the market.
Click to expand...

It is with Schiit. Next to firmware updates of DSP filters, they do replace older DAC hardware to fully update older models to new ones, at a fraction of the cost for a new DAC.
 
What I see is that the gap between the very best state-of-the-art products and the just excellent products is narrowing rapidly. You can now get performance in the 2k price range that was only attainable for $15k or more a few years ago. I see that trend accelerating.
 
Al M. said:
It is with Schiit. Next to firmware updates of DSP filters, they do replace older DAC hardware to fully update older models to new ones, at a fraction of the cost for a new DAC.
Click to expand...

with all due respect, Schiit doesn't make dacs nor are they replacing the R2R in your Yggy 2 upgrade.

and besides, MSB sounds much better than Schiit at an entirely different price level so i'm not sure why you even compare the two.
 
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