NuForce icon uDAC-2 - Beginners Guide to Good Audio; Audio System Quality Factors

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What qualities distinguish a good audio system?
Let’s start with a misconception. “Wow! I’ll bet that can play loud!” This, or
something like it, is typical of the newcomer’s reaction to an audiophile’s setup,
particularly if the speakers are large.
Why a system’s loudness capability should be the measure of excellence isn’t
difficult to understand. People install often quite costly sound systems in their
cars. Some of the larger specimens seem capable of shaking their host vehicle
apart. The pavement trembles when one passes by. A club’s sound system is in
the same league: ear-splitting, gut-wrenching, floor-buckling output. With the
exception of classical music, which is rarely ever amplified, the same is true for
most live concerts. Domestically, the average boom box can break a lease. TV
ads featuring hard-pumping woofer cones say it all.
On actually sitting down and listening to our hypothetical audiophile’s sound
system, the newcomer will likely say “Wow!” again, followed this time by “It’s so
clear!”
Clarity. The term takes in a host of qualities. As strange as this may seem, one of
clarity’s principal components is silence. A silent audio system — an audio
system that contributes little to no noise of its own — reveals the music all the
more clearly at listening levels from soft to loud.