about dacs and av receivers compatibility...

[admin_exported]

Hi everybody,

i am a bit confused as i just read in october's advice center that "you don't need a separate dac as the Yamaha... has a very capable one inside it."

i am thinking of buuying an onkyo 609 amp and maybe the pioneer N50 streamer. so it means i don't need the streamer? i can directly connect the ipod to the amp?

does it mean that all recent amps have a DAC inside them and that the digital music will run through it automatically if coming from an i pod or i tunes?

then is it still better to add an external dac?

i already own a rather old arcam A85 amp. the sound going out of it when i conenct an i pod to "aux" is extremely poor... if i add a stramer or a dac in between, will it be noticeably better??

i know all this can look a bit confusing, but that's because i am a bit confused...

can someone help?

thanx

 

[Andrew Everard]

i am a bit confused as i just read in october's advice center that "you don't need a separate dac as the Yamaha... has a very capable one inside it."

Yes, that's correct.

i am thinking of buuying an onkyo 609 amp and maybe the pioneer N50 streamer. so it means i don't need the streamer? i can directly connect the ipod to the amp?

Yes, you can, using the standard dock connector-to-USB cable supplied with your iPod. If you have music stored on another computer or a NAS (network attached storage] device, you can also use the Onkyo to stream the content from that. Or play internet radio. Or Spotify and all that stuff. So no, you don't need the streamer.

does it mean that all recent amps have a DAC inside them and that the digital music will run through it automatically if coming from an i pod or i tunes?

No, but it does mean all AV amps and receivers have DACs in them – they need them because the sound coming from Blu-ray players and the like is digital – and many will also have a direct digital input facility for iThings.

then is it still better to add an external dac?

Not always, no. In fact, often not.

I already own a rather old arcam A85 amp. the sound going out of it when i conenct an i pod to "aux" is extremely poor...

That's because the Arcam is taking an analogue output from the iPod, using the iPod's internal digital to analogue conversion. More modern AV receivers, such as the Onkyo you mention, will take a digital feed from the iPod, bypassing its onboard DAC, and feed it to the DACs in the AV receiver.

if i add a stramer or a dac in between, will it be noticeably better??

Not always, no. In fact, often not.

 

[mcjwalters]

The 609 is apple compatible, so yes you only need to connect your i-device to the amp no streamer is needed. If fact the 609 also has spotify etc... so just connect to internet and away you go. All digital amps have a DAC they need to transfer the signal from a digital one to an analogue one to produce the sound that you hear.

 

[Anonymous]

thanx a million, most useful :