HTPC vs A dedicated CD player
- Thread starter magick
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Ok what if you wanted your HTPC to give out equivalent of £1000+ 'audiophile' sound quality. What sound card or DAC would would be good to put in?
Soldato
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I'd go with a standard soundcard, digital out -> Benchmark DAC-1. Although I think that would be overkill unless you had a very, very very good room + speakers.
Why would you choose standard digital out over USB?
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I wouldn't have thought either would make much difference - although USB probably has better error correction, but a USB Benchmark is quite a bit more expensive.
a Beresford 7520 DAC + TH4032 opamp upgrade is amazing for the money, i've never heard the Benchmark DAC with my gear so it's not easy to compare but when i listened to it at some shows it's definitely not £800 better.
upcoming WADIA DAC should be a nice one though.
The iPod DAC or are they making a new one? The iPod one is already out I think.
EDIT : found it, they are rbinging a new DAC. Looks very nice indeed.
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What is the rest of the system, amp and speakers being used ?.
Use external DAC, either SPDIF, or USB should be a bit better..... Or go one step further and use a NAS drive and Digital Streamer.
What the budget your working with ?
Use external DAC, either SPDIF, or USB should be a bit better..... Or go one step further and use a NAS drive and Digital Streamer.
What the budget your working with ?
Looking at a Quad 99 Pre-Amp with two Quad 99 150w Mono Power Amps and a Thorens TD 700 turntable. Speakers, not to sure yet but possibly Focal JM Labs of some sort.
I've found this review on sterophile of the Benchmark DAC 1 USB and the reviewer claims the sound is bit more grainy over USB than SPDIF/AES. Though I don't understand how it would be more grainy.
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Well, would help if the reviewer defined "grainy".
Not a creative soundcard
This !!!! The DAC1 is a fantastic piece of kit, albeit fairly expensive. Consider a Beresford too, never heard one but seem highly recommended.
I've read in a number of places that implementing a good USB solution is not quite as straightforward as it should be, and that SPDIF typically has the edge in most kit. Ignoring this subjective view, I believe that USB is typically limited to a maximum bandwidth of 16 bit/48khz. Whilst that's probably sufficient to cover 99% of most people's music collection, does mean that you don't get to play with some of the new 24 bit music files that are becoming available.
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usb2.0 has more than enough bandwidth
192khz 24bit stereo pcm is just over 9Mbps but usb2.0 has bandwidth enough to stream a hd-dvd at least which works out about 30Mbps. . usb2.0 is theoretically capable of 480Mbps (60MBytes) and i know ive seen 45-50 using a 2.5" portable drive.
192khz 24bit stereo pcm is just over 9Mbps but usb2.0 has bandwidth enough to stream a hd-dvd at least which works out about 30Mbps. . usb2.0 is theoretically capable of 480Mbps (60MBytes) and i know ive seen 45-50 using a 2.5" portable drive.
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usb2.0 has more than enough bandwidth
Whilst I'm not going to argue ref the specs of USB2, many of the DAC manufacturers are using a solution that results in a maximum bandwidth capability of 16 bit, so if you're going to buy a USB capable DAC, read the small print.