Audio interface DAC VS Hi-Fi DAC

Comparison between digital to analog converters that are used in music production and other pro audio applications versus high end audiophile DACs.
In this video I am going deep in technical details that make DAC good, different types of DACs and different interesting inputs and outputs of these DACs.
I am also trying to explain the words audiophiles use to describe sound and what to listen to hear the differences between Hi-Fi gear and pro audio or budget audio solutions.
Social links:
======== SoundCloud ==========
/ viktorrose​
======== MixCloud ============
www.mixcloud.com/ViktorRose/​
==========FB ================
/ ​
======== ==IG================
/ ​
========= twitter =============
/ viktorrose

[@ihtmhobbies6452]

The timing of you making this video couldn't have been better. As a musician and otherwise someone that uses an interface for communication, I always wondered why audiophile-grade amps and DACs don't give me the same capabilities. This information and expertise is great. Thank you.

[@shroud1390]

Do you draw a distinction between features and sound when you say “capabilities”?

[@girirabindranath1683]

Great, informative explanation, thanks!

[@realguitarshredder]

Great stuff man. Subscribed

[@avia4281]

Glad i found your video. I'm gonna stay with my Behringer uphoria umc-hd202 and not get any dac. Had a question. If i connect my audio interface with iPad pro 2021 and listen to apple music lossless will the interface change bitrates automatically? Will the headphone monitor on the interface be of less quality than the output of the interface or the same?

[@rcher]

Great Info ! Thanks

[@ronbackal]

Thanks! That was really revealing

[@st33Npuist]

Amazing stuff.. Thank you so much.

[@blkc744]

thanks really nice and clean explenation!

[@shroud1390]

Very well done vid.

[@Muzammil.S]

Wow, incredible quality of data dump here. Mind blown! A comparison between Neve 88M vs RME ADI Pro would be welcome.

[@ndavies8]

RME is a better unit

[@octoberride]

Great info, it just ended and I was like..already?

[@Ryan-yi6su]

Great explanation 👌 So does that mean it's still worth spending the money on an external dac vs just using the internal one? It's unfortunate that they don't sell is that they don't sell most DAC's we find on the Internet at the local store so we can try it out

[@lubos.8827]

this is a fantastic video on this topic. Exactly what I wanted to know... btw: you sound very much like lexfridman :)

[@picksalot1]

Very interesting. I thought because "The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem is an essential principle for digital signal processing linking the frequency range of a signal and the sample rate required to avoid a type of distortion called aliasing" the power of its Math would be able to avoid things like jitter, clock issues, etc., and thus maintain the integrity of the audio signal. But, that doesn't appear to be the case.

[@goldengeniusbeats9553]

thanks buddy !!

[@MikaelTh]

Hardware, specs, theories are important but DA blind tests are scarce. They reveal the real anwers to your question. I have A/B tested ifi Zen Air, EMU 0404, Delock Cheapo USB’s and onboard Realtek. Onboard was really bad and Delock surprisingly good. The choice between the first 2 was very difficult but the EMU won.

[@antisocial333]

Noice job bruv

[@OptLab]

So a 10Kilogram dac is not overkill for high end stationnary iem? Or is it money wasted because of so much power is not needed ?

[@hanspieter5558]

Thanks man

[@dilbyjones]

Yes!! FINALLY!!

[@lg2107]

so 44.1 vs 196 is a perceivable difference? idk if I can hear it with my current playback setup but I guess I'll record in 196 / 24 bit

[@umusachi]

You can certainly hear the difference on a good playback system. It’s more about depth and musically. Not all A->D will Make a meaningful difference recording at 96kHz vs 44.1… Some cheaper DACs use a 48 / 96 clock only and use trickery to get to other sample rates (or some have both 44.1 / 88.2 and 48 / 96). Id check and see what your DAC has. Eg. If it’s based on a 48kHz clock then you’ll get better results at multiples of that sample rate

[@lg2107]

@@umusachi how can I check? it's a presonus 2626 interface

[@harney-barrow2036]

Not really. The changing of a sample rate from 44.1 to 96k or 192 kHz is quite literally about faster sampling, which helps a great deal with reducing latency while recording. The downside of this is being a heavier load on computers, and may need more expensive chips on the interface.

[@tanzboden]

@@umusachi No, you can't. Nobody does. This was proved over and over.

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

@@umusachi thats bullshit. Theres no blink test proving it.

[@OniZame93]

This is very informative video.. but still can’t connect the dots for noob like me.. so I want to listen to lossless from apple music for real here. But my car head unit is bone stock. The rest already upgraded with dsp and two way. Can I use cheap dac from phone to aux? Because the bluetooth seems to be not giving me real lossless 😢

[@conrad9race1]

which dac will be better in low price range under 200$? integrated in audio interface Focusrite scarlett, topping, ifi zen or dragonfly will be there huge difference or they are very comparable?

[@kontanaizumi]

As someone who's had both a focusrite solo and a schiit modi, I would say that cheap dacs are mostly similar I personally would go with a motu M2 if you want a recommendation, I enjoying using an XLR mic and unless you're trying to power really hungry headphones an interface will do you well enough.

[@conrad9race1]

@@kontanaizumi thank you! I ve already bought and my opinion is same as yours, im happy with the buy :)

[@PeSOVIN]

Some people can hear 0.2 pico second time difference? In this time sound travels: 0.2 pico second x 343m/s = 68 pico meters If this is true, then if you move your speaker for 0,068 nano meter closer, you can hear this. Do I need to explain how ridiculous this is?

[@leonardtristan6873]

One easy clue is that the low end gets quicker, kick drum hits and leave the sound stage with much more force. You also hear better separation between kick and bass. Then some stuff is also happening in the highs and mids etc... Try for yourself or go in hifi shop and ask to hear a good dac vs an entry level dac.

[@JairajSinghPatil]

one moves orders of magnitudes more back and forth while breathing probably.

[@zebarzebra]

I think you misunderstand something. Theese 0.2 pico seconds difference can be heard in very short soundwaves and not from wave to wave but inside of a certain wave. This has nothing to with the question when does the sound wave hit the listener, but it is a about how the wave is shaped and also which wavelength does it have. By the way I am highly skeptical too, but the description of the claimed phenomenon is not entirely unbelievable IMHO. In the end a double blind test should be performed.

[@JZStudiosonline]

It's almost like these people have no idea what NURBS and FFT is.

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

you are able to think. The guy in this video obviously not.

[@umusachi]

Very well explained. I’m an audiophile / studio engineer and getting more into mastering. It always irks me when people say hi end DACs are ‘snake oil’. You simply need to listen to a high end DAC (FPGA / R2R) through a high quality system to understand the difference between them and standard chip based DACs…. But there is of course some real engineering behind them. And yes it is measurable. People often get focused on frequency response but it’s more to do with timing and dynamics. I’m using a UA Apollo silver face in the studio and the D->A is pretty poor IMO. Has anyone used R2R to make a pro level DAC? I know there are several FPGA based ones (Crane Song / Antelope / Lynx / Prism). I’ve been spoilt by listening to Aqua’s R2R DACs in the HiFi world and they make chip based DACs sound very flat and lifeless.

[@kevindemelo4878]

I don’t know much about R2R DACs but the BRYSTON BDA-3 might interest you, I use it and it doesn’t colour sound what’s so every it’s really good. Has class-a outputs

[@TR-qf2gt]

Hifiman makes some really good R2R DACs lately

[@ronbackal]

I was eyeing the Aqua R2R dac's. Which speakers do you use?

[@vicentecortesruz3177]

What do you think of a Dac Fiio btr7? I want it simply to improve the sound in my car when I send it audio via Bluetooth. Along with a good audio system and quality speakers. will there be differences?

[@unc1589]

I’ve noticed that some audiophile guy’s don’t mind a little coloration where audio mixers consider that a no no for their DACs. And yes, properly applied, specs matter!

[@kevindemelo4878]

An audiophile dac that doesn’t colour sound is the BRYSTON BDA-3, they released a version with no hdmi, it’s cheaper but remains an expensive DAC. But it’s super good

[@ssewwess2700]

@@kevindemelo4878 For no coloration I would just pick a Topping. There really isn't any necessity to spend $3500 on a DAC.

[@Herobox-ju4zd]

Ok, it seems there are some people here who know what they're talking about so I have a question: I'm a total noob when it comes to audio but I got my hands on an old Cyrus one amplifier plus the PSX thingy and some B&W speakers; very late eighties/early nineties. It sounds great with regular sources like CD players and TV. But I also have this decent bluetooth receiver I hooked up to it, a Marmitek BoomBoom 93 but the sound is just horrible; dynamic range between soft and loud and highs an lows is great, but there's soooo much which I can only describe as sibilance on steroids. Tweaking the equalizer on my phone when streaming helps a bit, but totally kills the sound. Cheaper bluetooth receivers have the same issue. Anyone have any ideas what causes this and how it can be resoved?

[@JZStudiosonline]

Bluetooth sucks for audio, which is why there's new versions or updates to the BT standards. I just put a new stereo in my car, and for whatever reason streaming from bluetooth sounds like crap but if I do carplay it sounds fine, though I don't know why that difference would exist.

[@ThunderKat]

Imagine connecting a 10K U$$ DAC to a 3K U$$ Speaker set and hear a Hi-Fi Audio File Of Justin Bieber singing "baby, baby, baby..."

[@bradrapp3697]

Hey, leave his mom out of it! 😂

[@Zenbeau]

i did not understand any of this lol. except that i learned that the audio interface i'm using is a "regular DAC" and there are HiFi dacs out there

[@honumoorea873]

A dac is just a converter that use mathematic formulas to convert digital to an analog signal, it has... Per Definition, no coloration. What is after the dac (can be in the same box) can add coloration, the dac will not.

[@danjones4002]

So if they both use the same dac chip, what makes them sound different? Its the stuff they ADD afer the chip, aka filters. Keep paying way to much money for hifi amps! I would rather use what the people mixing the audio use, and nowadays most pros say their really isnt much different between the high end and low end.

[@philipp594]

Internal soundcards are useless because of all the electronic noise inside the pc. Not because tech ppl. have bad ears.

[@Richdadful]

Yes I had a creative xi-fi shifted to cheap fiio e10k, the difference is there. Onboard sound cards have issues. I feel if some wants gaming audio they should better get usb sound blasters of creative.

[@MrBazsi888]

44.1khz sounds the best.

[@filip.herman]

I’m sorry but I just can’t believe that you can hear above 22.05 kHz and that you listen to music at over 96 dB, because these are the limits of 16 bit 44.1 kHz audio

[@davidallanmusic]

I tested my own tracks with my LCD-X headphones and I heard that 24 bit has a lower noise floor than 16 bit. To my ears this makes it sound cleaner, i.e. more separation between the instruments. The DAW I use runs in 32 bit and I could not hear any improvement over 24 bit.

[@teashea1]

snake oil scientific measurements are what count ----- See Audio Science Review