Then ofcourse you need a DAC.No contest there. My personal opinion was only for CD players playing Redbook or SACD.
DAC... Why do I need it?
- Thread starter parambir
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Then ofcourse you need a DAC.No contest there. My personal opinion was only for CD players playing Redbook or SACD.
In a haste I though his post taunted my point. It's wrong of me. You are right man,thanks for pointing out.
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Personally I think a DAC makes super fine adjustments to the sound, as compared to the preamp. These refined adjustments might not bear major criteria for the end user.You might find the preamp makes bigger difference.
The sound is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. So the answer to what would make the biggest difference varies for every setup. My experience is that everything being equal, it is the speaker change that makes the biggest impact on the sound.
I agree, changes come from speaker and preamp very easily detectable. But you can not ignore the source. As a source first we have to concentrate on the file itself and medium through which we extract the first analog signal. Like TT or CDP, a stand alone DAC also belongs to the class of source components which introduce analog signal to a system for the first time.
If you are a completely Vinyl or CD guy then no need to invest on a stand alone DAC, other than that when you are ignoring or compromising about quality of the stand alone DAC then it is like, lapse of taking care to it's root of a plant.
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So "everything" is important.
Of course! Why else do you think we spend all our time arguing on this forum, and all our money on the audio equipment?
hyeah:Yes! I have found that simply adding a power amp makes such a big difference.
To clarify, I was not recommending that a multi-channel upgrade is necessarily a better or worse option than a secondary stereo setup. I was mainly saying that it is worth evaluating both options to see which one fits our specific needs better or what trade-off is better.
For example, I find sophisticated DSP like Dirac Live or the current gen Audyssey MultEQ (various flavors including 32 and Pro) powerful tools that might help overcome limitations of room shape, ability to do room treatment etc. Even for stereo, these options might provide people with a lot of mileage (or more mileage than other upgrades) - but again, totally depending on what one's constraints and goals are.
Another worth while thing to note is that high end multi-channel options have come down drastically from the astronomically high $7k-$10k+ levels down to much more affordable territory. For example, one can conceivably build a budget-end pre-pro setup with Emotiva MC-700 or XMC-1, paired with say, A-700 or A-500 or Outlaw Audio 7410 or their much cheaper 5 channel model.
IME with 2 DACs - cirrus logic and Burr Brown, i can clearly say that DACs have their own sound signatures. So do the opamps used internally as low pass filters. The trick is to go find a DAC that gives kick to your senses.
I gambled with the BB PCM1794 and it worked for me more than my expectations.
I gambled with the BB PCM1794 and it worked for me more than my expectations.
Yes, Audyssey MultEQ (and the likes) help a lot for movies. Adding a power-amp before running the auto equalizer gets you the benefit of both. In fact, if you connect the AVR preamp output into one of the inputs to your analog integrated/pre-amp and then run the Audyssey Auto equalization, you get the best of both worlds. That is, pure analog path for music, and all the digital wizardry for Movies; through the same speakers and amps. We had discussed this method here on HFV several years ago:
http://www.hifivision.com/surround-...eceivers-worth-one-good-best-2.html#post49965
http://www.hifivision.com/what-should-i-buy/4069-denon-3808-ma-rs6-any-suggestions-2.html#post43930
So "everything" is important.
To my opinion when you add more hi-end pre-amp and speaker then you could sense more difference between DACs or other gears from source category.
I am really lazy to copy all those files into cds. Also there are different live sources out there which can not be copied, to listen them decently I need a good DAC anyway. My music sessions also quite long (sometime up to 6 hours or even more) and I like to play all my favorite track without much physical intervention.
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Won't a network player or streamer be more useful that way like a Denon DNP730AE or a Cambridge Audio CXN .... I'm really contemplating in getting one since I have a huge music collection in my hard disk....But I never quite listen to it these days since I'm only listening g to CDs. It will be a nice idea to stream over the network with the HDD in a NAS box or over airplay...
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If you are willing to put in so much effort, then spinning a vinyl disc is definitely more rewarding. Digital is for those days and times when you are not in a mood to move too many muscles
Actually I have network player, Pioneer N-50. Previously also owned Marantz NA7004. Still I have found few DAC (outboard) which improved the performance feeding the digital signal from network player.
I prefer UPnP to dedicated network players. Right now a Raspberry Pi 3 connected to the DAC is handling the job of a Network streamer. Volumio software running on that can be controlled from any touch device or computer. The content is sitting on a NAS drive. The Pi3 and the NAS are on a wired LAN. That helps with the smooth rendering of 192KHz24bit files purchased from HDTracks. The controllers are wireless. The separation of the server, controller and renderer roles in UPnP is fabulous.
Network Player is also access-able through UPnP, my PC have Serviio and Foobar running as Server. I connect the Pioneer N-50 (or BDP-160) through wifi (extender) to those servers and stream/control media files with the Apps (android) on mobile provided by Pioneer. Also have Bubble UPnP installed on mobile which can also control or connect any media files (both from mobile and PC SERVER) to stream over N-50 or BDP-160 with resolution up to 24/192. Bubble UPnP is really handy, when installed it can serve itself as server and same time it show all streamer and server around the network, can work as control bridge.
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Not really. All of these are about usecases on using a DAC in a Home Theater setup. The DAC has to be for 2 channels in a multi channel world. So it is not just about which DAC I buy, but usecases on how to insert a DAC usefully in an HT setup; still using the same front speakers.
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