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‘Double Dac?’

Ian Stafford

pfm Member
Sorry if this is a stupid question:
I have a Fiio x5 3rd gen that I play straight into my amp. If I play it through an Arcam irDAC will that effectively ‘double dac’ it or does the Fiio dac become disabled?
 
Not sure I understand the question here. A DAC is a digital to analogue converter, so it outputs an analogue signal. For the Fiio to output a digital signal to your Arcam DAC it cannot be passing the signal through its own DAC by definition.
 
A DAC can only read and decode a digital signal input, so the Arcam will be fed what it "sees as nonsense".

That apart, what voltages are involved? Unless a digital signal voltage is at or higher than line level, you will potentially damage the Arcam by sticking line level volts into the digital in. I appreciate that I could search for the voltage of a digital signal, online, but I have no idea otherwise.
 
Fiio X5 use a 3.5mm CoAxial adapter cable or Mini USB to Mini USB cable to iRDAC

Fiio in DAC mode - check the User Guide for how

Fiio is them just acting as a Digital Network Player/Streamer and all the DAC action happens within the Arcam
 
Told you it may be a stupid question!
The signal out from the fiio must be analogue and therefore using its inbuilt dac. I suppose I’m wondered if I could use the arcam dac instead if the fiio’s.
I think I’ve answered my own question after some googling, I need to use the digital (usb out) out to the arcam.
 
Fiio X5 use a 3.5mm CoAxial adapter cable or Mini USB to Mini USB cable to iRDAC

Fiio in DAC mode - check the User Guide for how

Fiio is them just acting as a Digital Network Player/Streamer and all the DAC action happens within the Arcam
Thank you, it’s now clear!
 
Told you it may be a stupid question!
The signal out from the fiio must be analogue and therefore using its inbuilt dac. I suppose I’m wondered if I could use the arcam dac instead if the fiio’s.
I think I’ve answered my own question after some googling, I need to use the digital (usb out) out to the arcam.

You could always buy a small Analogue To Digital converter and use this to re-digitse the analogue output of the Fiio so that you can then use the Arcam to turn it back to analogue again.

That could be fun. :)
 
A DAC can only read and decode a digital signal input, so the Arcam will be fed what it "sees as nonsense".

That apart, what voltages are involved? Unless a digital signal voltage is at or higher than line level, you will potentially damage the Arcam by sticking line level volts into the digital in. I appreciate that I could search for the voltage of a digital signal, online, but I have no idea otherwise.
S/PDIF is 0.5 Vpp, but it's very unlikely that a receiver would be damaged by normal line level signals.
 
This is what I do with a Behringer UCA222 (cheapo Chinese DAC, which also functions as an ADC) - run USB into it and optical out to a Rega DAC, so the Behringer acts only as a USB to SPDIF converter.
 


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