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confused over DAC's

taz

pfm Member
After my last thread asking for recommendations for a DAC i seem to be more confused than before?
If Dac's which are reasonably priced are so good, then what's the point spending thousands on a new cd
player when you could just buy a cheap cd spinner and good DAC ?
and can you run a DAC straight through to a power amp or do you still need a pre amp?
thanks
 
If Dac's which are reasonably priced are so good, then what's the point spending thousands on a new cd player when you could just buy a cheap cd spinner and good DAC ?
thanks
Exactly. Why do it? The only question would be regarding the cdp's ability to pick up all of the data and correct for errors in real time as a source. Better to go for computer audio.
and can you run a DAC straight through to a power amp or do you still need a pre amp?
thanks
In some cases yes, if the DAC has a digital pre. If it doesn't then you can't control the volume without some kind of external attenuation device.
 
I believe some DACs have volume controls but the DacMagic hasn't so you will need a pre amp. My group of enthusiasts have auditioned many high end DACs in a top Naim system which is very revealing. The DacMagic held its own against all of them although most of them brought something to the party. The DacMagic remains in this very high end system and a BluRay player (Denon) is used as the transport. This combination offered the best sound by consensus.
 
You can also attenuate volume in software , some playback software have properly dithered volume controls.

Keith.
 
Benchmark DACs have a volume control and XLR and phono outputs, so can be used to drive a poweramp, or indeed active speakers, directly. They sound mighty fine too. Most DACs have an output of at least 2V or more, which is enough to drive most power amplifiers to their rated output; all pre-amps do in practice is attenuate the signal (unless you want to drive your amplifier into clipping), so there are obvious sonic advantages, not to mention serious financial ones, in getting rid of your pre-amp if you can. You might lose the ability to have lots of inputs though. There's a new Musical Fidelity M1 Clic that seems to be a pre-amp, DAC and streamer in one box with plenty of analogue and digital inputs - might be worth checking out.
 
i have done quite a bit of experimentation using a cyrus preamp, naim 32.5 preamp, improved naim preamp, passive alps pre and home made RB4 buffer. The buffer did the best. this caresses the electrons in some positive way for me. a buffer is a system matching circuit. My home made rb4 has input switching and remote control. It's cool.

my conclusion is that a 2volt signal needs attenuating and conditioning before being passed to the power amp. you can't buy something that does just that in one box, they tend to have opamps as the conditioning bit.

Dacs seem to have come into common use as there are so many potential digital sources now a days. You can improve the sound with better dacs. ``it could be that the dacs I like are adding something, i don't know. I must admit I would be a bit nervous about doing a double blind test with some of the options available. I'd probably make a bigger fool of myself.
 
After my last thread asking for recommendations for a DAC i seem to be more confused than before?
If Dac's which are reasonably priced are so good, then what's the point spending thousands on a new cd
player when you could just buy a cheap cd spinner and good DAC ?
and can you run a DAC straight through to a power amp or do you still need a pre amp?
thanks

Good sounding DAC turns CD deck or PC into hi-level source. As others noted, a pre may or may not sound better in your setup (no hard and fast answer) and it gives you the volume control.
 


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