Do I need a DAC?

Soldato
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OK, so maybes I've been sucked into the marketing blurb a little here but bare with me. From what I have read I can basically sum up the use of a DAC to mean 'better sound'.

A little bit of background.

I run a simple setup, Mordaunt Short 902i bookshelf speakers, 309i sub-woofer and these connect via QED cables (speakers are bi-wired) to a Cambridge Audio Azur 640A 65w amplifier. Finally, I output from my PC through an Asus Xonar D2X sound card. Small EQ changes but no DSP effects, 2 channel, 96 KHz sample rate output.

All seems to work well and in my eyes, is a nice little setup for gaming and listening to music from my PC (and I do listen to a lot of music). :)

How would a DAC fit into this picture? I'll be honest and say, I don't really understand them. Are they just fancy upscalers?

I have been sticking with Cambridge Audio to complement my current setup and therefore have been reading about their DACMagic. They state that "essentially it converts 16-24 bit audio to 24 bit/192kHz so you hear so much more from compressed material."

Now, this sounds good. I do have a lot of mp3's, and my CD collection is not ripped in the best quality. I know my sound card apparently does this output already thanks to Texas Instruments/Burr-Brown PCM1796 DAC’s, giving a maximum 8-channel (7.1 surround) output at 24 bit/192 KHz.

Would the two conflict somehow? :o

Finally, how would I hook it all up? Would it be...

1. Sound card -> Amp -> DAC -> Speakers
2. Sound card -> DAC -> Amp -> Speakers

And what is the best way to connect all this? S/PDIF?

Thanks in advance for any help answering my questions. Would be great if someone had a DACMagic and can say if it's worthwhile!

Cheers. :)
 
Try them out yourself, there's so much crap around about expensive DACs (they're digital to analogue convertors) making a huge difference, usually because they cost a lot so people like to tell themselves that ;)

I think the only difference you're likely to notice is maybe less noise due to the DAC being external but that's about it. Pretty much any DAC these days is going to do a good job and any distortion etc is going to be at a level you can't hear anyways.

It'll be sound card -> DAC -> amp -> speakers if you get one.

As I say try them yourself, I'm pretty sure you're unlikely to tell the difference....
 
I have a dacmagic and I love it.

Your soundcard will already have a DAC built into it, it converts the digital signal from your computer to an analogue signal that your amplifier can handle, your soundcards DAC will just be a cheap one.
 
Get one I have one too. Couldn't live without it using my X-fi Titanium SPDIF out but USB sounds just as good too. It is a more subtle difference in SQ rather than an immediate improvement.

X-fi > CA 550A > Sennhesier HD-650 / Razer Makos soon to be Mezzo 2s.
 
I'm an advocate of external DAC's as well.

Having used a selection of internal soundcards (Xonar and XFi's included) i can say that all the ones i've used have suffered from the electrical noise generated by components within the case.

By feeding a digital signal to an external DAC you keep audio in the digital domain until it's outside the noisy confines of the case... the result is a silent sound floor and much better dynamics.

When considering overall costs i certainly felt it was worth spending the additional £30 or so pounds over the cost of a decent sound card.

My system is as follows -

Coaxial digital out (Asus M3N-HT) > TC-7510 > Senn HD650's and/or main audio system

gt
 
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How is upconverting to 192kHz going to make an mp3 sound better? You can't replace what's been taken away with a lossy format. That part is absolute marketing BS, oversampling has its place yes, but when dealing with compressed formats - no.

Also, how are you actually connecting from the soundcard to the amp currently? I'm not familiar with that amp, but if you're connecting via SPDIF or an optical connection then you're not using the soundcard DACs anyway, you'll be using the ones in the amp.

I've not heard a Xonar, but I'm not convinced that you'll see a significant improvement for your money, especially with a relatively modest system.
 
Also, how are you actually connecting from the soundcard to the amp currently? I'm not familiar with that amp, but if you're connecting via SPDIF or an optical connection then you're not using the soundcard DACs anyway, you'll be using the ones in the amp.
.

+1. think the wofson dac on my amp is good enough :P
 
Hi all

Thanks for the replies.

I am connecting from my soundcard to my Amp with a 3.5mm -> L/R Phono cable. Is this not ideal?

Thanks for anymore thoughts and comments. :)
 
Hi all

Thanks for the replies.

I am connecting from my soundcard to my Amp with a 3.5mm -> L/R Phono cable. Is this not ideal?

Thanks for anymore thoughts and comments. :)

That's fine :)

+1 for what Lowe said. As I already said, it's irrelevant whether the DAC on the card is cheap, if any noise it produces is below the level at which you can hear it really doesn't matter.
 
I am connecting from my soundcard to my Amp with a 3.5mm -> L/R Phono cable. Is this not ideal?
It's absolutely fine and it's how i'd imagined you'd wired it up.

In my experience a soundcard doesn't generally sound that much better than decent modern onboard audio. Certainly not the Xonar DX or the Xfi i used most recently.

As i mentioned before - using an external dac has improved dynamic range and silenced the noise floor. I've used various hifi over the years and was never happy with music playback from my PC until i moved to an external dac.

If you're only using the PC for stereo playback and have an onboard digital output (either optical or coaxial) you could sell the sound card and put the cash towards a decent entry level dac.

gt
 
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