[DSwarP]

I was referred to this forum by a member of another forum I frequent, so I apologize if I don't know a simple answer or post this in the wrong section. My question on my other forum was...

"I have a Signals/Transforms class that I am taking and our first assignment is to write a 1 page paper on what we think is the best ADC (Analog to Digital Converter). I figured there might be some people here who know where to start better than I do. He said it was an opinion type paper, as in I have to explain why it is the best one out there. Bit resolution, bandwitch, etc. are things I'm supposed to take into account. He mentioned something about ADCs that use optics being the best.... I think..."

Any help would be awesome. Looking around, this place seems like it would definately be able to provide me a good answer...

 

[DSwarP]

Nothing?

 

[PhilS]

Part of the problem may be the thread title. I assume you mean what is typically referred to as a DAC (a digital to analog converter) as opposed to an "ADC." You might want to change your thread title to something like: "Need opinions re best DAC for school research project." You might get some folks to help you with some thoughts.

A second problem of course is that there is no "best." It's kind of like asking: "What's the best car?" But if you reference the school project in your title, you may get folks to understand that your thread has a different purpose than just finding out what is "best," which is an impossible task.

That being said, I would also do a search on the forum, as there have been numerous threads regarding various DAC's, and you should be able to pick up a lot of information on what people think are very good DAC's. You also might want to look at 6moons.com, which reviews some pretty high end equipment, incluidng DAC's.

 

[SysteX]

Well, if you do indeed mean an ADC, I'm afraid not many people here may be able to help you, as few of us do that conversion. Most of us do a single D->A conversion somewhere in our audio chain, but there aren't many good reasons to do an A->D conversion in a hi-fi audio chain.

 

[Sherwood]

the OP does not mean DAC, he's looking for an analog to digital converter. I've never seen the term ADC, but I see "A to D" used frequently.

Now, to your question, do you mean the chip specifically or the entire system from input to output? To relate it to the world most of us here are familiar with, there are DAC chips made by companies like Texas Instruments, and full DACs made by companies like Zhaolu.

For just the chip, analog devices makes excellent units, like this one. For the entire device, I have no real experience.

 

[003]

Maybe he wants it to do quality digital rips of LPs or he is recording something? There is more to audio than high end playback systems, you know

With that said, I am afraid I can be of no other help here.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Based on my experience with the Benchmark DAC1, I'm seriously thinking of buying one of their ADC1s to use with a computer-based system for transcribing LPs. Currently I use an Alesis Masterlink recorder for this, and its analog-to-digital conversion seems to be quite good, but I wonder... which is always the first step to spending more money.

 

[The Burn Pt.2]

Lavry Gold

 

[DSwarP]

Thanks for the responses all, however I handed in the paper at 2 haha. But, for reference, I was talking about A to D converters, not DACs. I apologize for the confusion.

While the responses were just too late for my paper, Sherwood has confirmed what I had hoped; I wrote something up about one of the Analog Devices chips, so I should be good.

Off to the rest of this forum, I'm looking at that X-fi mod for my computer... interesting stuff.

Thanks again.

 

[neilvg]

Check out Prism Audio out of England. Very good stuff.

http://www.prismsound.com/

I use their A-D for my recording setup (very pricey stuff) but excellent.

Neil