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New DAC's Posted by Philip Brandes [IP: 152.163.197.59] on November 30, 1998 at 11:48:19: In Reply to: New DAC's posted by Paul Prior MD on November 27, 1998 at 23:01:35: : What do you say regarding a well-known critic's comments posted on the : I have no idea myself and I'm happy with my DC-1 how it is, but his comments that the DAC upgrade does nothing but make the numbers on paper look better were disturbing - any company that does business with me should do so honestly.... Hi Paul, I don't see any dishonesty in how Lexicon has dealt with this issue. The DAC upgrade was a necessity--back in March, Lexicon's supplier stopped making the 20-bit DACs that were part of the original DC-1 design and replaced them with pin-compatible 24-bit units, so Lexicon had to start using them. While the newer DACs offer some theoretically greater precision in the areas Buzz mentions, this evidently doesn't translate to a significant audible difference. DAC resolution per se has less to do with sound quality than implementation (especially with no sources using even 20-bit). It's not that "the rest of the signal path is not up to the job?" (as your critic might mis-characterize it) but rather that the rest of the DC-1 signal processing quality already exceeded signal sources. However, "24-bit DACs" are a buzzword that seems to resonate with the hi-fi press (and as Dylan has pointed out, with armchair hobbyists who draw up preamp comparison charts to use as buying criteria). Since Lexicon does use 24-bit DACs, why shouldn't they advertise that fact on their website and marketing materials? Everyone else does--look at the brochure for ANY product and you'll see all them hit all the au courant buzzwords they can to assure their customers they're getting current technology. This is how any company promotes itself. What's most significant is that Lexicon has not tried to milk its existing customers by pushing an upgrade that represents a dubious improvement at best. They could be trying to turn this into a potential cash cow by preying on our audiofilia nervosa and touting this as a must-have upgrade, but as you can see from Buzz's posts they're doing quite the opposite. At the same time, they're still willing to offer the upgrade if someone feels left out (unlike many manufacturers who change specs all the time without any recourse for owners of older units). If they're giving you every possible option, how is this in any way dishonest? Of course, if someone has an agenda to find fault with everything a company does, it's possible to twist any circumstance into something sinister. But you really need to apply the common sense test--as an owner, are you being mistreated in any way here? I don't see that you are. Since you point to the newsgroup discussions, you've likely seen a similar response from me over there, along with the response implying that I was some kind of Lexicon agent or employee. For the record, this is untrue. I have no ties to the company other than the fact that I own some of its products and am very happy with them. I just dislike seeing obviously biased distortions being perpetuated by would-be audio Iagos trying any way they can to libel a company and its products and to poison owners' satisfaction with their purchase. Bottom line is, if you like your DC-1 and don't feel pressured by Lexicon to make frivolous upgrades, what's really disturbing here--the newsgroup message or the tactics of the messenger?
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