In Reply to: Okay posted by JeffH on April 16, 2012 at 23:47:18:
It is very simple.
You have a DAC, a chip doing the DA conversion.
Feed it a number (digital) and it outputs an equivalent voltage (analog).
The DAC, the box has various inputs e.g. AES/EBU, Toslink, SPDIF (coax), USB, Firewire, Ethernet. You have as many different protocols as you have different inputs.
None of these protocols the DAC (chip) does understand. It only speaks 1 protocol (probably I2S).
Behind each input there is a receiver translating the input protocol to I2S.
So we have a protocol conversion and a DA conversion.
Suppose you have a DAC with a simple 16/48 adaptive mode USB receiver and a 24/192 SPDIF (coax) input.
If you buy a 24/192 USB to SPDIF converter you can use this to play any audio > 48 kHz using your computer.
If you buy a asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter you might get a better sound quality.
An example is in the link below.
The Well Tempered Computer
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Follow Ups
- Protocol conversion and DA conversion - Roseval 05:15:09 04/17/12 (0)