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How important are the actual digital players?

post #1 of 19
11/6/10 at 6:08am
Thread Starter 

Hi!

I am trying to learn about components of audio systems and I notice that there is not as much debate about the digital audio sources as there is for DACs, amps and headphones.

does any CD player do just fine? is the DVD slot on my laptop as good as any other CD player out there?

Thanks for your help

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post #2 of 19
11/6/10 at 6:11am

A CD player also consist of a DAC component and other things. So getting a good one might not be a bad idea.

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post #3 of 19
11/6/10 at 7:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by darknessproz View Post

A CD player also consist of a DAC component and other things. So getting a good one might not be a bad idea.



what if I have a very good seperate DAC device? then would the CD player make a difference?

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post #4 of 19
11/6/10 at 5:00pm

I don't have a CD player or a good DAC, but I *think* so. There might be other factors affecting playback quality, like noise. Make sure your CD player has digital out though, i doubt the cheaper models have them.

 

Wait for the more experienced members to answer you. 

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post #5 of 19
11/6/10 at 5:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by darknessproz View Post

I don't have a CD player or a good DAC, but I *think* so. There might be other factors affecting playback quality, like noise. Make sure your CD player has digital out though, i doubt the cheaper models have them.

 

Wait for the more experienced members to answer you. 



well thanks! smily_headphones1.gif I just want to figure out how good of a source my laptop is . So I can decide if it is worth spending money on DAC and amp and headphones. 

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post #6 of 19
11/6/10 at 6:14pm

I'm sure i have read somewhere in this forums that a CD player and a laptop plays CDs differently. With a laptop though, its a better idea to rip into a lossless codec like FLAC and use a media player like foobar2000 for playback.

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post #7 of 19
11/6/10 at 6:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by darknessproz View Post

I'm sure i have read somewhere in this forums that a CD player and a laptop plays CDs differently. With a laptop though, its a better idea to rip into a lossless codec like FLAC and use a media player like foobar2000 for playback.



yeah yeah, my friend installed foobar200 right now for me and I think it sounds better than VLC media player (I think it is a placebo but whatever)

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post #8 of 19
11/6/10 at 6:22pm

No it isn't. foobar2000 is an excellent player, much better for music playback than VLC IMO. Try to get a bit-perfect output by adding a component such as ASIO or WASAPI.

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post #9 of 19
11/7/10 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by darknessproz View Post

No it isn't. foobar2000 is an excellent player, much better for music playback than VLC IMO. Try to get a bit-perfect output by adding a component such as ASIO or WASAPI.



Hehe! smily_headphones1.gif I knew I should trust my ears .

thanks for the advice, what are ASIO and WASAPI? I have not heard of them

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post #10 of 19
11/8/10 at 9:16pm

Friend, I believe that we can all save ourselves a lot of pain with this extensive FAQ from the good folk at Computer Audiophile:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/faq

 

Chris will hold you by the hand with the FAQ - it assumes no prior knowledge. My only caution would be that those guys are fairly particular about their sound - your requirements may or may not be quite as stringent.

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post #11 of 19
11/9/10 at 7:28am

If you are using an external DAC the transport (cd player, laptop, etc) component doesn't really matter that much. The DAC does the hard part. The transport part has an easier job and depending on who you ask how much difference it makes the answer will range from nothing at all to huge.

I am part of the group that believes the transport doesn't matter much, so if you have an external DAC you can use any device as transport and it will sound pretty much the same. There are few reasons why I prefer a CD player over a computer though. Biggest of those reasons being that computers have fans and other parts that make noise.

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post #12 of 19
11/9/10 at 10:26am

Here's a standard answer: some transports (PC, CDP, etc.) can have higher "jitter" than others, so the transport is still important in addition to having a high quality DAC (or dac section of the transport).

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post #13 of 19
11/9/10 at 1:42pm
I used a Squeezebox Classic as a digital player, into a DAC. Replacing the Clasic with the Squeezebox Touch made a remarkable difference, the latter sounding cleaner, more dynsmic and more detailed.
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post #14 of 19
11/9/10 at 6:31pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks a lot for the responses guys. I learned a lot.

so do you think if I buy a decent DAC/AMP it can improves the sound of my laptop dramatically?

I kinda have a bad feeling about USB DACs(although I dont know much about them ;P).

I feel like USB is such a generic and overused cannection. it is not like a bad@$$ dedicated audio cable.

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post #15 of 19
11/10/10 at 2:16am

You can buy one of those overpriced USB cables if it makes you feel better wink.gif

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