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Pico - USB DAC/Amplifier From HeadAmp - Page 11

post #151 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by milkpowder View Post
Constructive criticism please

iMod is probably better than an external DAC if we're talking about the quality of the signal going into the I2S interface of the DAC chip. What comes out the other side is dependent on a lot more other factors apart from the quality of the input signal. Anyhow, if jitter generated by the coaxial cable and S/PDIF chips is what we're most worried about, then there are currently a lot of DACs that clame to be very near jitter-proof. Elias claims the DAC1 is one such DAC and backs it up with numerous graphs and what-nots. Even the DAC in the Cambridge Audio 740c CD player is claimed to be more or less immune. I wonder how "jitter-proof" the Pico is.
MP, d-cee's cool, but I would like his thoughts!

I didn't mean that an imod is necessarily better than any other DAC set up, (time and place for that) just that the fact it doesn't use SPDIF is an advantage. That's what I tried to say with
Quote:
in as much as
but obviously it came out wrong.

Anyway, looking forward to the Pico.
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post #152 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by milkpowder View Post
there are currently a lot of DACs that clame to be very near jitter-proof. Elias claims the DAC1 is one such DAC and backs it up with numerous graphs and what-nots. Even the DAC in the Cambridge Audio 740c CD player is claimed to be more or less immune. I wonder how "jitter-proof" the Pico is.
They make this claim because of the use of the AD1896 for upsampling which is also used in the Pico
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post #153 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by koto-in View Post
No. If there is no optical/coax input, then there is no need for a multiple input DAC and thus no spdif conversion.
Exactly, that's the point Justin is making, there is no S/PDIF conversion in the Pico. The USB in the Pico goes straight to I2S, if he were to add an optical/coaxial input though S/PDIF coversion would be necessary.
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post #154 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by koto-in View Post
What this means is that if you're listening to 16-bit data, then sound quality may be better with a 16-bit DAC because there will be no spdif conversion involved.
OK thanks. Sorry all for OT but while I'm learning here, what's the diff?

Are CD's 24 bit or something? Is the stuff on an ipod all 16 bit? Are mp3 and flac different (16/24)?

As you see I have no idea about that yet. Searched wiki and Google but obviously not well enough .
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post #155 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kugino View Post
thanks for clearing this up, justin. for portable purposes i agree that maximizing battery life while retaining excellent sound quality are of utmost importance.

while we have you here, do you have an updated timetable for when you will start selling these? thanks...
kugino, i'm taking pre-orders now and I'll have an official thread on that very soon
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post #156 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by justin w. View Post
They make this claim because of the use of the AD1896 for upsampling which is also used in the Pico
There is our answer. The data is upsampled to 24-bit. Thanks Justin.
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post #157 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by koto-in View Post
There is our answer. The data is upsampled to 24-bit. Thanks Justin.
Sorry, I guess I misunderstood what you were asking.
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post #158 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevenkelby View Post
OK thanks. Sorry all for OT but while I'm learning here, what's the diff?

Are CD's 24 bit or something? Is the stuff on an ipod all 16 bit? Are mp3 and flac different (16/24)?

As you see I have no idea about that yet. Searched wiki and Google but obviously not well enough .
CD is 16-bit. SACD and DVD-Audio as well as most recorded music that has not yet been reduced for CD distribution are 24-bit.
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post #159 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by koto-in View Post
CD is 16-bit. SACD and DVD-Audio as well as most recorded music that has not yet been reduced for CD distribution are 24-bit.
Great thanks for that info. Why don't I know these things? I assume PC and mp3 players all give digital 16 bit too?
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post #160 of 711
9/11/07 at 9:57am
24bit doesn't sound any different than 16 bit if the source material is 16bit. The # of bits is strictly dynamic range. Upsampling doesn't add more bits, it claims to add more frequency resolution. So you'd upsample from 44 to 88, but not from 16bit to 24bit. The only time number of bits will come into play is if you try to play back something with more bits than the dac can handle, and then you can get least significant bit truncation, which can add noise.
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post #161 of 711
9/11/07 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by grawk View Post
24bit doesn't sound any different than 16 bit if the source material is 16bit. The # of bits is strictly dynamic range. Upsampling doesn't add more bits, it claims to add more frequency resolution. So you'd upsample from 44 to 88, but not from 16bit to 24bit. The only time number of bits will come into play is if you try to play back something with more bits than the dac can handle, and then you can get least significant bit truncation, which can add noise.
I understand that, makes sense. Was just wondering how many bits an ipod or something uses. It's not relevant to anything though.
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post #162 of 711
9/11/07 at 10:14am
Anything ripped from cd has 16 bits.
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post #163 of 711
9/11/07 at 10:37am
Got it, thanks. Found some stuff on the net too.

Anyone got an opinion on using the Pico as a dac only and amplifying it's output through a power amp? Using it as a DAC/Pre-amp I mean? Should work fine right?
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post #164 of 711
9/11/07 at 10:44am
I'd bet it sounds ok, but wouldn't do it, myself. It works great as a small dac + amp for listening directly tho. I was blown away when I heard it in july.
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post #165 of 711
9/11/07 at 10:47am
I might want to use it to feed a loudspeaker amp to drive my PC speakers, or to feed a RWA Sig.30.2 to power the H2s. Mainly I will use the imod for that though. Really it's for watching TV or movies that I would want to use it as a pre-amp.
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