Should I find a DAC?

[Bovine]

I'm using a RME 9632

Is the DAC good enough? OR should I find an external one?

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bovine I'm using a RME 9632 Is the DAC good enough? OR should I find an external one?

The 9632 is a awesome soundcard, you can shop and try some DACs for sure, but your not gonna find anything substantial under $1000-1500.

 

[Uncle Erik]

That is an excellent soundcard, but there's an awful lot of stray RF and electrical noise inside of a PC. They're very noisy. External DACs eliminate most of that.

If you want a DAC to feed with your soundcard, there are a lot of reasonable choices out there. Before I bought mine, I seriously considered the Musical Fidelity A3.24, the Channel Islands DAC, the Bel Canto, and the Benchmark DAC1. I think all of those are excellent, and am reasonably sure I'd be happy with any of them.

I settled on the PreSonus Central Station, which I couldn't be happier with. All of these can be found between $400 and $1000, and they're worth looking into. You'll get a lot more out of your music.

 

[Bovine]

Thanks for reply

So if I connect the 9632 with an external DAC, does it mean it would bypass the DAC of 9632, and so the sound would be different?

 

[slwiser]

double post due to delayed response by site..

 

[slwiser]

Yes...how different it would sound depends on the external DAC.

You could mode the output caps and op amps on the RME in the mean time to step up the analog output of the RME. I think this has been discuss in several thread over the last couple of years.

Or you could go the HagTech HagUSB to outboard DAC route or Red Wine Audio USB Select to outboard DAC or Empirical Off-Ramp I2S to an outboard DAC that has I2S interface. Note that the people who make the LaRocco PRII portable amp are designing a portable DAC similar configuration to it priced at around $500 with I2S input. They also have a matching power supply being built for both the PRII and the PRIIDAC. This should be a killer of a portable DAC or a real nice home stack when used with the external power supply. Using this DAC with its I2S input with the Off-Ramp could prove to be as good as regular DAC worth thousands more since jitter will be controlled by the use of the I2S interface.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bovine Thanks for reply So if I connect the 9632 with an external DAC, does it mean it would bypass the DAC of 9632, and so the sound would be different?