Digital Drive

Posted by Tom Schuman (A) on April 25, 2007 at 03:10:56

In Reply to: I could really use a DAC suggestion! posted by budburma on April 20, 2007 at 10:15:23:

While a PC/Harddrive to DAC sounds fine, the amount of noise from the PC can be objectionable if you use a regular electrical S/PDIF coax cable, in my experience, in part cancelling out the theoretical advantages of harddrive playback as opposed to real time optical pickup (the laser in a cd player).
Optical interface between PC and DAC avoids this, but generally has higher jitter.
Note that you can archive CDs on a PC without necessarily needing to play them back from there. The Cary is an awfully good CD player, and getting a computer setup to sound as good will take a lot of attention to detail.
Archiving and playing back are 2 separate problems that take separate solutions, which is why I have decided not to merge PC and hifi after some experimentation with it.

• also.... - Tom Schuman 03:17:48 04/25/07 (2)
  In Reply to: PC audio is not automatically better posted by Tom Schuman on April 25, 2007 at 03:10:56:

  AN, Audio Aero, etc, are all very pricey, reflecting the low manuf. volume (and the pocketbooks of the well heeled audiophile). You might be just as happy with a less expensive dac as long as you are solving the jitter and computer power supply/rfi problem somehow.
  I do use a MHDT Renaissance DAC, a cheap 16 bit non oversampling dac which is quite nice on not too complex music (though it does not have the leading edge impact and presence of the DAC inside my Sony receiver on more complex music).
  If you are going to spend a lot of money, look into the modified Benchmark solutions (or, if you really like the tube sound, the Wavelength or the MHDT) and think carefully about what kind of PC you want to configure.

  
  
  

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  • Re: also.... - budburma 11:51:49 04/26/07 (1)
    In Reply to: also.... posted by Tom Schuman on April 25, 2007 at 03:17:48:

    I have recently seen a lot of modified less exppensive dacs whose mods actually make them pretty pricey.....notably at the empirical audio site. i do think one could get by on the more inexpensive side of things and have found many bang for buck good deals and that price doesn't always mean it sounds better.....as have we all. quality is quality in the end and what sounds good is just that.

    as for configuring a pc..i have been checking out ripping programs and really doing a lot of due diligence for signal porocessing and transmission. jitter is always a little confusing for me, but maybe an auiophile sound card would reduce that effect? certaily another device to reduce jitter would just present more links int he chain and start to obviate the goal here....fer cryin' out loud!

    i think a mac will do and the promise of the groovy iphone type audio interface plays no small part in that choice.....

    
    
    

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    • Re: also.... - Dawnrazor 20:19:37 04/27/07 (0)
      In Reply to: Re: also.... posted by budburma on April 26, 2007 at 11:51:49:

      There are definately some advantages for the mac route. I didn't go that way because I didin't know Lynx supported them, but they do, and may be an option.

      If the iphone is blue tooth enabled, you can use it on a pc too.
      
      

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