[massappeal85]

Is that digital to analogue converter? What in the blazes is that?

 

[chych]

Just to add more...

Your music is stored in a digital form (unless you have vinyl) usually the CD. The human ear, however, cannot make music out of these 1s and 0s but can make music when it hears an array of different frequencies of sound (analog)... so what the DAC does is convert those 1s and 0s into sound waves we can understand. The quality of the analog conversion is very very important as this consists a lot of your 'source'.

So, as dwb said, most (if not all) cdps have DACs built in, whether it be your portable one or some expensive one, however you can get external versions, which are usually better than internal, and offers you more flexibility over your source.

Maybe that was too basic/obvious?

 

[sackley]

I learned how to make DAC's in class last semester. I doubt that the ones I know how to make are any good though. Just thought I would share.

 

[massappeal85]

So, say I have a higher end CDP, and a lower end portable cdp, both with digital outs (would that be optical?), and instead of allowing them to use the internal dacs, I connected them to an external one. Would they sound pretty comparable in sound?

 

[ai0tron]

Some modern transports use digital servos to aid in tracking. It seems like that might change the quality of the sound. Seems like. Things like vibration damping, smoothness of motor assembly, etc and so on.