ashmore;357559 Wrote: > I've heard the expression DAC around. I've read that you can get > something for £150 or so. > > I have three questions: > Is a DAC the addition to my system most likely to satisfy my immediate > 'need'? > If so, is installation an easy - plug it in and off you go? > And finally, within the £100 - £150 price range, what have people found > to be effective?
Hi Simon, You should realize that you already have some DAC's: one in your CD player and another one in the SB. You obviously prefer the sound from the one in your CD player. If you want an external DAC, you should make sure that the actual DAC chip in it is better than the one in your SB and at least as good as the one in your CD player. If it isn't, you might take a step back instead of forward or it'll still be not as good as your cd player sounds. Some will disagree with me here and tell you that an external DAC that has a chip that's not as good as the one in your SB will actually improve the sound. This is because we're talking about something subjective here, so opinions about what sounds better logically differ. My background is electronics and I can tell you the following with confidence: 1. A good DAC chip can give bad sound when the implementation of it (the electronics design around the chip) is not done right. 2. A good DAC chip in a good external DAC design will always sound better than a chip with lesser spec's. The main thing is that the DAC chips in the SB's aren't too bad... they are considered good, but they aren't high end (that's Transporter territory). There's a good chance that your SB's DAC is better than the one in your CD player. So, my advise is to put that 150.- aside in a jar labeled "DAC". Next time you think about buying an external DAC for 150.-, add it to the jar instead. 3rd time you think about it, add again and start searching for DAC's in that price-range, don't forget eBay etc. Also, you might want to think about an "amp" jar and a "speakers" jar because you will run into the situation that they end up being the weak link. cheers, Nick. -- DeVerm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DeVerm's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18104 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=54783
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