What is a DAC? - Page 3

x2, I am pleasingly surprised with my Zen and iPod, plenty good enough for my office speaker listening rig or travel. WIll try them in my home system some day...

Dogs bollocks tends to mean really good i.e that curry was the Dog's bollocks.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...=dogs+bollocks

Bollocks on its own means nonsense.

An audio CD player has different error correction from a computer CD drive, uncorrected errors in audio CD players are very very very rare, in the order of single parts per several million, possibly you may get one inaudible uncorrected error per CD which would as you correctly say render computer program software unusable, however the magnitude of errors is so small as to be utterly irrelevant in audio. Many CD players do use CD-ROM drives but by no means all. In any case error rates are a non problem until you are talking about seriously defective kit.


And save lots of money !

Yea yea - I know. I was using it in the sarcasm context, like "pearlers" which means really really good. As in really really good bulls**t fairy tales about cd transports.

Sorry, my mistake, Adelaide ?

Because digital can't be perfectly converted to analog, and the DACs vary in quality. A better DAC will do a much better job at converting the digital signal to analog.

I wonder if I can follow up this thread with a few questions. I have read elsewhere that the best connection between a music server PC/Mac or a music distribution device like the Squeezebox and an external DAC is either a Firewire or USB connection, failing which AES/EBU is preferred to SPDIF. Is it true and why is that?

I have also read that it is better to slave a Transport to the Word Clock of an external DAC. If so, why do some very expensive and highly regarded DACs, like the Accustic Arts DAC1, even in its latest MK4 incarnation, not provide a Word Clock output/input to salve the Transport? Thanks in advance.

10 biggest lies in audio.. Half the list is debatable..Sorry, I won't buy rat shack cables over quality cables..

Yea man. We get heaps of UK DJ's here. I learnt the term "bollox" from Mr. Kevin Energy himself.

Google him. SWEET music for bassy headphones.

just to throw something interesting into the mix:

A fair few people say combined single box cd players are superior to using a transport and then going to a DAC through coax/optical because the common SPDIF format has limitations in how it handles jitter

KrooLism: could you shed some light on this? it seems you're quite happy with the two box solution...

One box or two box jitter has to be pretty massive to be audibly detectable, nobody has been able to reliably detect deterministic jitter (the worst variant) at below 20ns in music with ~ 1.5 - 2K jitter signals which give some of the most highly distorting sidebands. Even the Stereophile test CD uses a 30ns jitter signal to illustrate audible jitter. The worst jitter ever found by anyone actively looking for it (Japanese researchers Nishimura et al) was 3ns but few setups will even manage over 1ns.

Jitter at > 121ps will degrade 16 bit systems to 15 bit resolution for 20k signals but it does not seem as if anyone (so far) can tell the difference. At lower frequencies jitter has to be over 200ns to have the same effect. Random jitter lowers the SNR of digital systems , i.e. raises the noise level, but this isnt normally noticeable until you are in the > 250ns range.

Sorry to bring this thread back to life from the dead...

 

Just to make sure, dac's are for digital sources and so are phono preamps for vinyl (I guess vinyl and tapes are considered "analog?")?

 

Like could you have essentially the same set up minus the dac/phono preamp? For instance vinyl>>>phono preamp>>>tube amp>>>headphones OR cd>>>dac>>>tube amp>>>headphones? I mean is that all the components, at least in a nutshell? I realize for vinyl you have the turntable and the arm so I am sure I am skipping out on a lot of stuff.

 

Sorry again for being so new to this just been wondering for way too long. I figure once I go to a local meet (seems like there is one usually in Oct in Houston) most of my questions will be answered. I am a little impatient though.

 

Thanks for any help and advice,

 

Austin

Austin,

Seems like you have got it all right.

 

A DAC convert the digital audio data of an audio CD, computer file (MP3, FLAC, ...) and like to an analog signal. Vinyl records are analog to begin with, so the phono preamp (the RIAA) "just" apply equalization to correct the opposite equalization which were applied during recording. Read more about RIAA equalization.

 

Digital (CD): transport -> DAC -> Amplifier > headphone

Analog (vinyl): Turntable -> RIAA (preamp) -> Amplifier > headphone

krmathis,

 

Thanks for the insight and the reply. While I have a ton more questions it may be best to wait for a local meet. Plus my questions are more on the sides of amps and not dacs, well actually both it would seem.

 

It seems most of the community suggests to get your cans first then followed by your components that support and work well with your cans of choice. (currently own se530s [although as of a month ago one side is quieter than the other], a pair of ad700s which I have used for gaming for like 2 years solid, and about to purchase a pair of sr225s)

 

In my mind I would much rather spend a little more upfront to buy and own both a dac and an amplifier (more so willing to spend on the amp) and not have to worry about selling and buying something else if I pick up a new pair of cans. While I know certain amp/headphone combos are better I would still rather double what I spend upfront in order to avoid selling an amp and buying a different one. It seems from everything I read (the amps <1000 threads and other various threads) that people suggest against this. I understand why but I am still hoping that after a meet and more learning on this stuff I can find an amp and/or dac that can be a one time purchase and be somewhat successful at almost anything I throw at it. While I know a particular combo may be ideal (100%) with Grado for example I would love the same components be able to play beyer, senn, etc at 90% or better. Not sure if that makes sense but I just am not excited by the fact of buying a new setup for different headphones, as I would prefer one setup that can work great for almost any headphones and excellent for some.

 

Thanks again for your help and advice, it is much appreciated. I think the light bulb will really go off once I attend a meet.

 

Austin

Edited by eertelppa - 8/19/10 at 12:10pm

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm in the market for a new amp and I'm a bit confused.

 

I'm looking into buying the Travagan's White. Will the DAC portion be wasted if I'm not running a digital out from my computer to the amp?

 

My current setup is: Foobar on Laptop > nuForce UDAC > Denon D2000

 

I've just been plugging it up to my computer via USB without a digital coaxial plug or anything... By running it purely from USB and not having anything else connecting, have I been sacrificing some of the uDAC's function, and if I don't have a Digital Coaxial plug to connect the two, would it be a waste for me get the Travagan White? I'm trying to decide on a <$300 DAC/Amp combo that would sound best with D2000s (soon to be modded and possibly recabled). Should I be looking for something else?