Is it true that DAC determines quality of sound and not the amp?

Question

Lets say for example i take an analog signal generated from a top end DAC and pass it through a $30 amp through a 3.5mm jack, and into a top end speaker.

Assuming volume is played at a level the amp can handle without distortion, will there be any other reduction in quality?

Please refrain from pseudoscience.

Answer 1

On many amp tests, a high end, external, independent Dac is already used, which amounts to a superior input. This does not seem to affect the ability of testers to discriminate between the quality of amps they test. Each link in the audio chain provides its own source of problems, a sort of "tolerance stack problem", if you will. Over all the idea that a crackerjack box amplifier has the same specs as a 3000 dollar amp, is ludicrous. Also, low power amps "run out of steam" driving complex loads presented by sufficiently powerful speakers, and go into clipping, and other forms of dangerous distortion. Amplifiers are not the simple machines that shovels are, and cannot be philosophized about as if they were. A good source or signal is an important link in the audio chain, but hardly the only one.

Answer 2

Both determine quality of sound. Top quality DACs make the sound very good. You can hear the effect of low quality DACs from most low end computer audio, which always sounds harsh and grainy. A low quality amplifer can introduce distortion into the signal and ruin what is otherwise good input. Low end amps main evils are hiss and hum at low output levels.

Answer 3

The problem is, the inexpensive, lightweight amplifier will lapse into distortion, at the drop of a hat. The only way it will play cleanly, is at a very low level. So, when you take the same inexpensive, lightweight amplifier, and try to listen to it at any kind of normal or moderate listening level (as is natural), it will actually be distorting (at least a little bit) pretty much constantly.



So, even when you don't hear it as full blown distortion, you may first notice it in the bass frequencies, which will sound thinner, or lighter, or less clean (because the bass frequencies contain a lot of energy).



Similarly, all the musical peaks may begin to clip, and become slightly ragged, so, like the bass frequencies, even when it's not quite enough to perceive it as outright distortion, you're still, in effect, placing a hard limit on the dynamic range you hear.



So, it kind of begs the question, to say that you will always be able to keep it below the level where the distortion begins to alter the character of the sound, because it's never that clear of a line. You may not perceive it as outright distortion, until it's already at a pretty high level, like 5% or more.



The net result is, in any real world scenario, it's unlikely you will ever be playing the inexpensive amplifier at a setting where it is truly playing as cleanly as the more powerful amplifier (because your ears are not an accurate enough way to determine that, and because it would require playing it so quietly you wouldn't fully enjoy it).



The differences you would hear, primarily, between the cheap amplifier and a better one, is that the bass frequencies sound thinner, or lighter, and that the overall dynamic range is flatter, more compressed (i.e., creating a less enjoyable/more tiring sound, a blaring quality).



Dynamics are what makes music enjoyable, and what makes music sound real. That requires power. There's no easy shortcut around that.

Answer 4

The hierarchy of what is important for quality sound is as follows:



1) Speakers

2) Quality of source (AM radio music on a $5K system will still sound crappy)

3) Amplification

4) Electronics

5) Speaker positioning in the room/acoustic treatments

6) Wires (proper wires for the signal, not $,$$$ wires)



While the Digital to Audio converter does have an effect - it was really the microphone + Analog-to-Digital used to record the sound that is MORE important. The DAC cannot put back in details not in the original recording. This is why I listed "Quality of source" as more important than many other items.

Answer 5

There are many misconceptions and poor advice from people who "think" they know, when it comes to what contributes to sound quality. The simple answer is IT ALL MATTERS. Everything contributes to sound quality. Most people think you should simply buy the best speakers you can because that is going to make the biggest difference in sound quality. That would be COMPLETELY WRONG. Not to say speakers are not important "but" you can buy the best speakers in the world and if you hook them up to modest equipment you are not going to get the sound quality out of them you think or hope they would provide. Understand the detail in the music comes from the source and the equipment, the speakers can only reproduce what they are given. Meaning if the detail is not there the speakers cannot make up for the loss in detail.



I go against the grain in what most people believe and I have been designing some of the very finest in high end audio video system for over 40 years. I believe you should invest most in the equipment and equal if not less in the speakers. Most people would be shocked if they heard modest speakers driven with really good equipment. Most people discount short comings in speakers when its really from the equipment driving them.



Yes a DAC does effect sound quality and there are vast difference in them. But again it makes sense to invest in equipment that are on the same level of quality of the rest of the system.



Kevin

40 years high end audio video specialist

Answer 6

A $30 amplifier would definitely make a difference --- and it wouldn't be good.



In general, the sound of any DAC is much less noticeable

than that of a typical amplifier.





The component that will have the most noticeable effect, though,

is the speaker, even if it is a "top-end" model.

Answer 7

_All_ devices in a chain will influence the quality of sound reproduction. It's just that at some stages, you'll get mor bang for buck than at other stages.



And I'd care to disagree with Melv H: what you need for dynamics isn't power - it's the right speakers, e.g. http://www.soundandvision.com/content/klipschorn-speaker ;-)