[chrisbrock]

 
[size=10.0pt]First off, I have been an IT professional for nearly 12 years and feel rather embarrassed to even have ask this question but I have searched and just cant find that “smoking gun” answer that I am hoping to find.  [/size]
 
[size=10.0pt]I have a Sony Vaio running Win 7 laptop with a sub-par Realtek audio card.  Am I correct in my understanding that if I purchase a DAC unit (such as a little dot DAC1, ibasso Boomslang or even something like a Fiio E7 with its built in DAC) and connect the unit to my laptop via USB, my laptop will recognize the unit as essentially a sound card, automatically install the basic driver, and will then begin to send digital audio directly to the unit?[/size]
 
[size=10.0pt]If this is in fact the case then I will be happy as I was under the impression that I would need to first purchase a dedicated external sound card then connect that a DAC then from there to an amp.  I apologize for asking such a basic question but any input here would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks![/size]
 
[size=10.0pt]-Chris[/size]

 

[wilyodysseus]

Yes, an external DAC will itself act as the external sound card. You don't need to purchase anything else.
 
(As for Windows 7 drivers and device selection, I'm not sure. I'm more of a 'nix and Mac guy, but it'll probably work fine.)

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Quote:

Yes, an external DAC will itself act as the external sound card. You don't need to purchase anything else.
 
(As for Windows 7 drivers and device selection, I'm not sure. I'm more of a 'nix and Mac guy, but it'll probably work fine.)

Should find it as a USB Audio Device
 
Most of them are plug and play, one or two may need drivers. 
 
Either way you do not need an external soundcard.
 
Dave

 

[chrisbrock]

Great, that is wonderful news.  Win 7 seems to do a good job with recognizing devices and installing basic drivers for them so I would imagine it would not have a problem here.  I believe a DAC will under the tree for me this year!  Thanks for you very timely response.
 
-Chris

 

[harpua]

I recently got my first external USB DAC and was very pleased at how easy it was to set up and use under Win 7.  It was pretty much plug and play.  When I plugged it in to a USB port, the device (Nuforce Icon HDP) was immediately recognized, W7 installed a driver for it and the device immediately appeared as another "playback device" that could be selected under Control Panel, Sound, Playback Devices.  It could also be selected as a playback device under the various installed media players Output settings.
 
Also it's very easy to set up and use WASAPI with Win 7 and your new DAC.  WASAPI enables bitperfect output to your external DAC and usually yields even better sound quality.  http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components_0.9/WASAPI_output_support_%28foo_out_wasapi%29

 

[FallenAngel]

There are different ways to send data to a DAC... generally S/PDIF (almost all audio equipment use this and most sound cards have S/PDIF output) or USB, which almost all computers have.  If you don't have S/PDIF output from your computer (and don't want the other benefits to having a sound card), simply get a DAC that accepts USB input.

 

[MFranzen]

I've run both USB and SPDIF input on the same DAC and can say that I prefer the SPDIF

 

[Roseval]

[size=medium]All major operating systems (Win, OSX, Linux) support USB audio class 1.[/size]
[size=medium]This allows for 24 bits / 96 kHz max.[/size]
[size=medium]A lot of DAC are hardware limited to a lower bit depth and sample rate, mostly 16/48[/size]
[size=medium]All of them use the USB.1 12 Mhz frame rate[/size]
 
[size=medium]Recent OSX and Linux supports USB audio class 2. This allows for 24 /176 and 192 kHz. This requires USB 2 high speed mode (480 Mhz).[/size]
 
[size=medium]As the driver is supplied bij the OS, all DACs can be connected and will be recognized as such.[/size]
[size=medium]Some feature there own OS side drivers. Mostly to overcome the USB audio 1 limit.[/size]
[size=medium]A bit more: [/size][size=medium]http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/USB.html[/size]

 

[chrisbrock]

Thanks for all of the great info!!  A DAC has just jumped up to the top my xmas list riight next to an amp for the office. woohoo!! I am probably gonna go for a E7/E9 combo from miccastore and the Little Dot DAC for the home setup. 
 
-Chris