"hoarse with no name" wrote in message


The two most commonly cited specs for DACs appear to have
hit a plateau at 24bit/192khz.

That's far from being a complete spec for a DAC. Dynamic
range matters as well. Lots.

Does this mean that
progress in this area has slowed?

24/192 is the highest sample rate for which recordings are
generally available for.

It's also grotesque overkill compared to what the ear can
benefit from.

To be blunt, if I spend $650 on an AV receiver will I be
envying the DAC tech and thus the audio quality of new
models in a short time, or is this a mature field?

I think you're majoring in minors.

By definition, any time you buy a piece of electronics you're going to
envy the guy who buys one six months from now, and he's going to envy
you for having had it for six months before he did. Decide what you
want, buy it, then don't look at catalogs for at least a year.

But as others noted, the fact is that the numbers you're quoting are
already Plenty Good Enough for an AV receiver; they're probably better
than any signal you're going to feed into them.