Quote:
Originally Posted by SunWarrior /img/forum/go_quote.gif
My main source is an Arcam CD93 player. Its built-in digital-to-analog converter upsamples Red Book CDs to 192-kHz, 24-bit audio.
So, what would the benefit of an external DAC be for that source? Thinking of boxes like the Benchmark DAC-1 or the PS Audio Digital Link III Audio DAC.
Since the Arcam's DAC already upsamples, tell me why I might want to spend $1K for such a device.
Dave, who would certainly consider an external DAC if real SQ improvement were likely
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One of the dubious benefits of being in the repair trade is the fact that people like me get invited to manufacturers product training courses. Mind you, I expected more than just a sandwich for lunch from Arcam
. Anyhow, Perception and reality are two different thing. Complicated circuit designs involve complicated and very long PCB track routing. That in itself creates audible differences, easily detected by a good set of ears on a revealing system. Throwing everything on a compact PCB involves many compromises that are in the main left to the design engineers. So it is not uncommon to find digital, power supply and analogue signals overlapping each other. The resultant audio mess can and does influence the end result present in the final audio output. By the way, I myself would turn down even a free Arcam player looking at my data on returns rate BNIB
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A standalone DAC, amp, etc. is in general better laid out and signal paths are less compromised. This allows for a far cleaner and detailed audio signal at the outputs. A typical recent example of exactly just such a product is the TC-7510 DAC that I so much favour. Inputs at one end of the PCB, outputs at the other. Control signals off track on a separate PCB. Short track lengths between components. All of these are important if you want a good signal flowing from one component to another. The end result is that even with less than exotically expensive components the audio output is as pure as you can get for such a carefully engineered DAC.
Looking at the PCBs of many other products one can detect this same pattern from other manufacturers. The messy ones internally tend to also be the least good sounding ones. The properly laid out ones are a piece of sonic mastery. All in one CD/DVD solutions are a heavy compromise. Luckily, using them as just a transport means that the internal compromised analogue signal
is taken out of the audio loop. Only the relatively clean and less to distortion prone digital signal is used, and that is processed in a far more suitable design environment. The resultant audio output is therefore far better sounding in all but the worse DACs.
