Hello Die Hard,
After I put together my setup, I had a choice of what to rip my CD's to, Flac or MP3.
I ripped 3 CD's into both Flac and MP3 and tested them against each other, I couldn't
discern any real difference between them, maybe the Flac files were few % better?
I did the same test again with foobar2000/ASIO, I think there's a little bit more of a difference
than before, but nothing to get excited about.
I think my setup is just not good enough to expose the differences between best quality Lame and Flac.
However I'm now on the upgrade path, but can't decide what to upgrade first amp or speakers.
Thanks
Rob,
If you cannot get excited about the difference between MP3 and any lossless format do not bother spending any money on Dacs or any kit, it will be a wasted.
As with all music systems the source is key, you cannot change the quality after your source. It needs to be lossless. What you put in defines what you get out.
Spend your money on a good source, if you are going to source from a PC then as Marcin says a good USB Dac, decide on your budget, audition before you buy.
Folks can advise what to listen to if you give a budget. I started with a Cambridge audio DACmagic then an Audiolab MDAC (which I still have, may sell second hand) and now an Auralic Vega.
They are all good for their price but you generally pay for what you get. There are now a great many Dacs to try across a wide price range.
The same advice would also be for Vinyl or CD player or SACD.
I used a top Meridian CD player and a Dynavector moving coil cartridge for vinyl but now use digital only.
You still have to spend to raise the quality but only need to find out what sound you like.
See if you can listen to some-ones pc-dac based system and whether you like the sound.
All the components, source, amp, speakers, will make a difference but throughout you are looking to minimize the reduction in quality from starting with the best quality you can.
Hope this makes sense.
Peter C (The Chaplin)