Best connection?

[HGavrilov]

Hi guys,


I'm new to the forum. I've got the following setup:

-Laptop with USB external sound card - Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1
- Marantz PM6005 amp
- A pair of Q Acoustic Concept 20s

I mainly listen to hi-res audio files from the laptop or the desktop Tidal app.

Sometimes I listen to music from my phone (Google Pixel 3XL) connected to AudioQuest DragonFly Black running a generic (cheap) 3.5mm to RCA cable which goes into Tuner Input of the amp. Music is played via the USB Audio Pro app which is in turn synced with Tidal. The AudioQuest DragonFly Black supports MQA after the latest software update.

Currently I've got the external sound card connected to the amp via Atlas Element Integra.

Now my concern about that is that the D-A conversion is executed by the sound card rather than the amp.

Do you think that's a good idea or would it be better to run an optical such as QED Performance Graphite from the sound card to the amp thus keeping everything digital till it gets to the amp where the conversion is done by the onboard DAC? Basically which DAC would be better - sound card or amp?

Also, do you think there would be any noticeable benefit of adding equipment to eliminate noise such as AudioQuest's Jitter Bug and/or better mains products considering the current system?

Any other suggestions on improving the system or ways of connecting things would be appreciated.


Cheers,

Chris

 

[chris661]

I'm probably gonna upset some people here, but...

In my opinion, once you've got away from the £0.50 DAC inside the device, differences between decent DACs is rather minimal. You'll get much bigger differences by changing the speakers.

I wouldn't bother with the JitterBug, either. USB data is digital, and has plenty of error correction. The noise on a USB supply is minimal to start with, and the chances of that noise altering the data stream is basically nill. Even if it did, error correction would catch and fix it.
If such devices did improve data transmission, I'd expect them to be installed on every military and medical computer (where such things could make the difference between life and death) in the world. The fact that these devices aren't being used in those applications should be very telling.

In conclusion, it sounds like your system is pretty well set up, and should sound good for what it is. I'd be looking at the speakers as the first upgrade point.

I've done a lot of work in live sound as well as recording, and have found that the microphones and speakers (ie, converting sound to electricity and back again) are the places where the most degradation of the signal occurs. That doesn't mean other parts of the system don't matter, but they should be considered in proportion.

Chris

 

[shadders]

Now my concern about that is that the D-A conversion is executed by the sound card rather than the amp.

Do you think that's a good idea or would it be better to run an optical such as QED Performance Graphite from the sound card to the amp thus keeping everything digital till it gets to the amp where the conversion is done by the onboard DAC? Basically which DAC would be better - sound card or amp?

Hi,
I checked the web for the sound card and here is a link to some testing - not the best DAC ;
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...surements-of-sound-blaster-omni-5-1-dac.8931/

The DAC is limited to 24bit/96kHz, but the Marantz amplifier can accept 24bit/192kHz. Not seen an in depth review of the Marantz PM6005, but given that their engineering ability - i would use the amp for the DAC conversion.

It really does depend on your preference in the sound - the sound card may sound better for you, despite low performance.

Regards,
Shadders.

 

[gasolin]

The dac in the amp is the same in there cd6005 CS4398 so you could use that since the cdplayer is very good