Hey MadCow,
I am going to ask a partly hypothetical question here, but it has it's real aspect as well.
Tho I have learned DSP @ university I have never asked anybody about the following:
Does such a DAC system exist where the digital source, the quantized samples is transformed to analog in such a manner that it has such a volume level so that's sufficient to drive the target device such as a headphone in this case, without requiring further amplification.
The reason why I'm asking this is because if there is such an amp for headphones than the perfect way of feeding that amp is providing quantized samples, digital data. This way there is a minimal amount of "boxes" in the queue.
If you look at the whole system from the samples to the membrane of the cans then you must say the best way of transformation must be the simplest one, one "box" but that one is the closest to perfection, reason being if you consider signals in the frequency domain then you know that each amplification including the DAC where the nascent analog signal is born can be regarded as a "box" with its own transfer function, and the result is the product of those transfer functions. The more "boxes" we include the more errors or distortions will be present.
So let's say the analog jack output of my EMU-0404 has transfer function EMU_DAC(s),
while the desired above described ideal headphone amp has transfer function DESIRED_DAC(s).
The result analog signal that we send to the cable of the headphone is R(s)
If such a system existed where the DAC "directly" drives the headphone then its amp would be the only "box" in the queue, so it would look like R(s) =DESIRED_DAC(s)
Tell me if I'm wrong and no such system exists, because every headphone amp if it has digital input has its own inbuilt AMP_DAC creating a weak analog signal SEPARATED from its inbuilt END_AMP therefore in reality it looks like this:
EDIT: I meant separated by being a separate entities which are of course connected.
R(s)=AMP_DAC(s) * END_AMP(s)
So in conclusion that's why MadCow tells me "You can use the DAC of EMU" cuz in that case it will be:
R(s)=EMU_DAC(s)*AMP_THAT_I_BUY(s)
If this is the case (no ideal can amp exists) then is the AK4396 DAC of EMU-0404 directly feeding the rear jack output on my EMU-0404?
So no other further amplification "box" is in the queue?
Is it like R(s)=EMU_DAC(s) or R(s)=EMU_DAC(s)*BALANCED_JACK_OUTPUT_AMP(s) ?
Because if there is further amplification on the 1/4 jacks then it's just makes no sense to use it, then I'm better of using a dedicated amp that can receive digital inputs and has its own HQ DAC and end-amplifier.
Edited by freeborn - 11/9/10 at 7:14am
