Law Of Diminishing Returns

摘要

Our Features Ed refers to the old maxim 'front-end-first' in his column on p32, an adage that encouraged enthusiasts to allocate the lion's share of their budget to a record deck and rather less to the amplifier and speakers. In an ironic twist of fate and technology, today's progressive audiophile may have no traditional 'front-end' at all if he or she is streaming high resolution audio from their PC (or Mac). It's the reason why we've seen a marked increase in the number of outboard D/A converters launched in the last couple of years. Add-on DACs that not only offer compatibility with the digital output from CD/DVD players and soundcards but also include a USB2.0 port for asynchronous connection to a PC. The smartest are even recognised by the PC as an external USB Audio Device.