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Your conclusion (should be no difference) is reasonable IF the first part is valid. Therein lies the issue........
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No, I don't think that is necessarily true, if you are referring to the DAC chip itself. There are sound cards that use the CS4398 and the AK4396, the best and latest chips available from Cirrus and AKM.
If you are referring to the total D/A function, including clocking and analog output, then I suppose most internal sound cards are at a disadvantage.
But there is no reason that an external DAC component for a computer would suffer from any inherent disadvantage.
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Sure.
Originally Posted by fordgtlover /img/forum/go_quote.gif It seems that the first point in question is whether there is a difference in quality between a CD reading a Disc in realtime and reading the CD during ripping and then storing the data for later use later. Let's say that both devices are able to read the data well enough, and buffer enough of the digital stream to successfully avoid pops and drop outs. There should be no difference in the initial digital data stream. Is this a reasonable working assumption? |
Your conclusion (should be no difference) is reasonable IF the first part is valid. Therein lies the issue........
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Originally Posted by fordgtlover /img/forum/go_quote.gif The CD player then uses its DAC to convert the digital stream for analog output. The same would be done in a typical PC by the soundcard (or onboard sound). The accuracy of the conversion is dependant on the quality and stability of the clock in the DAC. CDPs typically have better DACs than PC sound cards. Is this assumption fair? What other factors might give the CDP an advantage in regards to the DAC? |
No, I don't think that is necessarily true, if you are referring to the DAC chip itself. There are sound cards that use the CS4398 and the AK4396, the best and latest chips available from Cirrus and AKM.
If you are referring to the total D/A function, including clocking and analog output, then I suppose most internal sound cards are at a disadvantage.
But there is no reason that an external DAC component for a computer would suffer from any inherent disadvantage.
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Originally Posted by fordgtlover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Once converted to analog the signal is then susceptible to EMI interference. This is of greater significance in a PC than a CDP because of the PCs native environment. If you take the data off board from the PC using USB and ASIO to an external DAC, can you successfully avoid both of these problems? |
Sure.