Question about DAC’s in Catalyst amps. Seaton Sound Central
21 posts skillet 21 posts
skillet
Just wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on what the “cut off point” is of upgrading the main DAC in your system since the signal then ultimately gets routed to the DAC in the Catalyst’s amps, which performs yet another analog to digital to analog conversion on it. 

I’m asking because I recently jumped into the music server world with an Aurender server (that I’m very happy with) and I know that like everything else, the better the DAC you have it connected to, the better the performance, but at what point does it not make sense to upgrade the main DAC anymore, since any benefits gained by it are probably mitigated by the capability/quality of the DAC’s in the Catalyst’s amps? I’m currently running the Aurender through a McIntosh MX-151 home theater pre/pro and everything sounds great, but like pretty much everyone else in this hobby, I’m a sufferer of “upgradeitis” and am always looking for ways to make things sound even better. 
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