I thought we might delve into a new subject this week: the all important analog stage at the output of a DAC. I think this may make for some interesting posts as adisproportionateamount of attention is paid to the digital side of the DAC relative to the analog side.
I smile every time I read about the core of a DAC being a Sabre or a Woflson or a whatever and almost nothing mentioned about the analog output of the DAC itself. To me that's out of balance and here's why: a modest DAC feeding an awesome analog stage will always outperform an awesome DAC feeding a modest analog stage.
Tomorrow we'll get cracking on this notion and cover a number of topics that relate to it. In the meantime, here's some food for thought.
Why is it none of us would be surprised to learn that a harsh sounding preamplifier would be the weak link in any system, even if fed from the most expensive and best performing source? Is it not obvious that a great source would sound harsh running though such a preamp?
