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Need a DAC for home speakers

post #1 of 6
Thread Starter 

Hi Guys, first post!

 

Seems there are some knowledgeable people here so I will see what I can find for my situation. 

 

I am moving into a new condo and I will no longer have my computer in the living room where I listen to audio on my logitech z-5500's. Instead I am using a laptop computer with a single output for headphones, while the z-5500's require three outputs or a digital output for all of the speakers in 5.1 to function properly. The main computer now has a dedicated office.

 

I will probably need a usb DAC to make these speakers work decently from the laptop right? I understand that most usb DAC's are designed for headphones, but are there any designs for external speakers? Does it matter much? I am willing to spend ehh.. we'll say $600 or less for something to do the trick =P. I very well could get away with less I'm sure and get some creative labs ones or something, but honestly I doubt they will be sufficient for home audio from high bit-rate tracks. Most of my tracks are at 320 bitrate or better. 

 

What do you guys recommend in my situation? I am keeping my z-5500's to set up in the living room in surround, so what will work best? Thanks!


Edited by BuddieGuy - 5/24/11 at 12:24am
post #2 of 6

As the z-5500 accepts digital in (SPDIF) a USB to SPDIF converter is probably a better option.

 

post #3 of 6

For the Z5500, the behringer uca202 http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx , will do the job fine it's usb and usb powered with a bit perfect optical out, get that and a good quality glass core optical cable.

post #4 of 6
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Seems like the Behringer uca202 will probably do the trick as stated, but I probably should have mentioned that I was hoping to get a DAC (or something like that) which actually improves upon the soundcard my laptop currently has. Would this do that? I really don't mind spending in the $600 range to get something decent that could even hold up if I were to ever improve the speaker setup I'm currently using. The Z-5500's are great as computer speakers, but I know that they may not satisfy me forever in a living room arrangment. 

 

To add another factor into the mix, I also have a Sennheiser PC360 headset and could possibly use it for the headset when I'm not using the speakers. 

 

What do you think?

 

post #5 of 6

The behringer will do fine for a opitcal output, you should spend the $600 on a decent speaker set-up not on a dac as the logitechs are crud.

If you want something better than look at the fiio E7/E9 combo , audio-gd range , cambridge dac magic It's not nessary to spend $600 on a dac past $300 your quickly hit diminishing returns.

 

post #6 of 6
Thread Starter 

Okay, thanks. I will look into my options then. Eventually I'll be back to upgrade my speakers!

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