DAC... what exactly does it do?

Stone22uk · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:19

Phal said:
Well it can have the best DAC in the world... but having to climb under my desk everytime I wanna switch between headphones and speakers sucks Major failing on Creative's imo but they have said there's nothing which can be done via software to allow us control of where sound goes out

I guess the reason I looked at DACs was because I wasn't aware some headphone amps had speaker outputs too!

I see your problem... that sucks

the sound card is really good too, i own one and im very pleased with it

Phal · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:34

Yeah seems to sound good so far

Kinda miss my old Hercules GameTheather XP soundcard I had back in 2001-2004 or something! That thing was awesome even if it wasnt the best sounding thing.

Had an external box connected to the PCI card via some giant thick cable. The box was a USB hub as well as having headphone and mic ports with volume knows and a bunch of other ports to use! Why can't there be something like that?

TALON1973 · 21 Oct 2011 at 21:33

major advantage of single box dac ......its not tied to the pc...

and i think i'll take the audiolab m-dac as an example of what a dac can do ...pricey , but worth it i think...

and i can use an external dac in more than just my pc .....as ive said more than once lol

TALON1973 · 21 Oct 2011 at 21:34

just noticed ...Phal ... we joined same month ...pretty close on posts as well

Phal · 21 Oct 2011 at 21:36

Yeah a good DAC undoubtly has it's place but for me the best option seems to be a good headphone amp since I already have a decent souncard and have no other digital sources that need to be played

TALON1973 · 21 Oct 2011 at 21:39

graham slee solo srg11

Phal · 28 Oct 2011 at 12:54

The Graham Slee would be a possiblity if there were outputs on the back too :/

Nate Silvers · 29 Oct 2011 at 19:44

Only think about upgrading a DAC if you have very good speakers and amplifier. It can be a very small upgrade for the price if you can't use it's potential. It's basically just components in a box that process the audio signal. DACs will It will have better tolerance resistors, heavy duty caps and DACs etc. An external DAC has a much cleaner floor noise than a soundcard inside a noisy PC.

You can hook them up to laptops too if they have a USB input. I use the Dacmagic, sounds better than my Titanium Fatality.

All that EAX processing is only used in old games anyways. If I want to fire up an old game from Windows XP days this option sends the EAC to the DAC.