Disappointed................

[4RE]

Why a DAC ?
never owned, or even had the slightest urge to add a DAC to my system.
Just buy the best CD player you can afford, keep it simple, less gears, less complications, & buy more records!

Which company has brought out the very first DAC to the market ? Not so clear..
Will be interesting to know (-; PSaudio sure was early, but not the first.

[antipop]

Originally Posted by 4RE

Why a DAC ?
never owned, or even had the slightest urge to add a DAC to my system.
Just buy the best CD player you can afford, keep it simple, less gears, less complications, & buy more records!

Which company has brought out the very first DAC to the market ? Not so clear..
Will be interesting to know (-; PSaudio sure was early, but not the first.

If you want to go digital, you have to have a DAC. You may also want to have a separate DAC and transport in your system. The need for a DAC is pretty obvious.

Theta was the first to bring a standalone DAC on the market. It was not possible before that.

[4RE]

Still don't see the need for a DAC..
But then again, never felt the need for a mobile phone too.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by antipop

If you want to go digital, you have to have a DAC. You may also want to have a separate DAC and transport in your system. The need for a DAC is pretty obvious.

Theta was the first to bring a standalone DAC on the market. It was not possible before that.

Georges
Owning a "separate" DAC is not mandatory to hear great digital. There are quite a few CD Players that have wonderful DAC's built in. Just to name a few you have Esoteric, dCs, Playback Design, Meridian and EMM. Most of these current units give you access to the DAC so you can use them for external sources. A win-win. No extra boxes, no extra cables, no additional power cords, less space. Yes you might lose that last minutia of SQ.

[antipop]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Georges
Owning a "separate" DAC is not mandatory to hear great digital. There are quite a few CD Players that have wonderful DAC's built in. Just to name a few you have Esoteric, dCs, Playback Design, Meridian and EMM. Most of these current units give you access to the DAC so you can use them for external sources. A win-win. No extra boxes, no extra cables, no additional power cords, less space. Yes you might lose that last minutia of SQ.

Jim, of course, I agree with you.

However, in my case, and I guess I'm not alone, I've moved away from spinning CD's. So why pay for the transport part when you don't need it. There is a market for DACs and it's getting bigger. All the name you've mentioned now offer standalone DACs as well as integrate and stacks.

[US Blues]

Originally Posted by antipop

Theta was the first to bring a standalone DAC on the market. It was not possible before that.

Theta was started by Mike Moffat, who designed their DAC's when he found the sound of CD players of that time to be less-than-adequate. Moffat eventually sold Theta, and 5 years ago co-founded Schiit Audio. The recently released Yggdrasil is an updated and upgraded iteration of the great Theta DAC's of years past.