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Ultra Micro DAC question

post #1 of 12
2/5/10 at 12:10pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

Here's a quick question: I have the ultra micro stack and I love it. I just today hooked up an old DVD/CD player to it via the digital optical cable jack (with a short cable I had bought from Headroom when I bought the ultra micro stack). It plays great, but it plays great no matter which input select I set the ultra micro DAC to: USB, Coaxial or Optical. For what it's worth, I also have the ultra micro DAC set up via USB to my computer (the DVD/CD player is sitting underneath my laptop).

Since sound is great, I'm hesitant to ask, but am I doing something wrong (or is there a problem here)?

Thanks for any guidance.
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post #2 of 12
2/6/10 at 2:36am
You really shouldn't hear too much or any difference between the digital inputs. All of them are sending the original bitstream to your DAC. The only way they would sound different is if errors are being introduced into the feed by poor design, bad interconnects, poor error correction, etc. All of these are generally fairly minimal with a given source.
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post #3 of 12
2/6/10 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 

ultramicro DAC question

Thanks for the reply. I guess a follow-up question, then, would be why even have the input switch at all? (I do have my computer hooked up to the ultra micro DAC via USB as well, but did no.t try to see if it works with the input switch on "optical" or "coax." Still don't understand the theory behind this, but as long as there's no degradation in sound, I'm happy
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post #4 of 12
2/6/10 at 5:23pm
I'm a little confused here, maybe others are too.

Are you saying that if you've got the Toslink plugged in, but switch the toggle to USB it still plays the music you've got piped in from Toslink?

What happens if play music through two inputs at once?
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post #5 of 12
2/6/10 at 8:09pm
I currently use a coaxial input on my Ultra Micro DAC. If I switch to USB or optical, I get no sound. I have to have the switch toggled to coaxial. This is how it should be.
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post #6 of 12
2/6/10 at 8:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aimlink View Post
I currently use a coaxial input on my Ultra Micro DAC. If I switch to USB or optical, I get no sound. I have to have the switch toggled to coaxial. This is how it should be.
Right, and that's what confuses me about his post. I'm guessing you wrote because you see the same thing I'm talking about.
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post #7 of 12
2/6/10 at 8:14pm
Yes. That's why I wrote. I initially didn't write since I thought I was the only one confused, but now it's different.
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post #8 of 12
2/7/10 at 12:18pm
Thread Starter 
Probably I'm the one who is confused (as usual)! Okay, until now, I've always used USB to connect my laptop to the DAC, and have had the little switch in the front set to USB.

I just took out an old CD player and hooked this up with an optical (toslink, I guess) from the optical out of the CD player to the ultra micro DAC optical input. I then flicked the little swith in front to "optical." I now have two things running into the DAC: the CDP (via optical) and the laptop (via USB). I haven't changed the input from 1 to 2.

What I noticed (I don't know why this happened - maybe because I wanted to see if both CDP and laptop would work with this hookup) is that if I flick the little switch to any of the three choices (USB/optical or coax), I still get the same (good) signal.

Based on what you all have been saying, it seems that if I were playing my CD player, and I were to flick the switch from "optical" to say, "USB," I would get no signal at all.

So, I'm probably doing something wrong, although I haven't noticed any degradation in sound.

Sorry if I'm still confusing things - I do appreciate, however, your replies!
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post #9 of 12
2/7/10 at 1:06pm
I think we are confused about what you are asking.

Are you asking whether one digital source should have better sound quality than another?

Or are you asking if your source switch is broken?
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post #10 of 12
2/8/10 at 1:00am
Thread Starter 

ultramicro DAC question

The latter - is my source switch broken, since I get a signal no matter which position I have the switch on. But if it plays, does it really matter?
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post #11 of 12
2/8/10 at 7:31am
So how do you switch between your optical and usb connections then? Supposed you have signal coming in from both sources at the same time?
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post #12 of 12
2/8/10 at 5:43pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks again. Well, it seems that when I use my USB, I simply switch from input one to two. But when I use my toslink, it doesn't matter.

Anyway - sorry for even mentioning this, as it works well no matter what. I'll fiddle with it a little bit and let you all know.

On a completely different note, I'm gonna pick up some small speakers for my computer, and so I'm looking at the Headroom stereo power amp (to hook up to the ultra micro, which I'll use as a preamp). It's a little pricey, but it would be a system match. I'm probably not supposed to ask this on this sponsored site, but do you all have any other suggestions?
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