DAC & Wireless

[DavieCee]

Hi,

A couple of wee questions about DAC's, wireless & HiFi.

I already have a Macbook Pro full of lossless tracks and an Airport Express Base Station which works fine for convenience but I am not convinced at a HiFi level.

I could get a DAC and an optical connection. Would that give me equal sound to my Kandy CD player?

If the loss is in wireless, I could connect the laptop to the DAC. Again, would this match the CD player?

Finally.......

Would a basic (£100-£200) DAC improve the sound from my Kandy CD player?

Thanks

 

[John Duncan]

DavieCee:I could get a DAC and an optical connection. Would that give me equal sound to my Kandy CD player?

Equal is in the ear of the beholder, but I would say that it's very likely.

DavieCee:If the loss is in wireless, I could connect the laptop to the DAC. Again, would this match the CD player?

Wireless can be a fiddle with dropouts and suchlike, yes, but provided you have a strong signal and don't experience dropout issues, then yes it would.

DavieCee:Would a basic (£100-£200) DAC improve the sound from my Kandy CD player?

In my experience with the same sort of standard of CD player, no - it was the move to HD-stored lossless which gave the improvement over CD, not the DAC per se. All the DAC is allowing you to do is bring the output of an Airport Express up to the standard of that of an audiophile-grade CD player, so it then becomes a fight-out between the two formats (which HD storage - generalising broadly and in my opinion only - wins).

 

[DavieCee]

Guess I am shopping for a DAC & cable then

I only need one optical input although more could be convenient for DVD etc but not necessary.

Any suggestions based on sound quality?

Off topic. I can see that a lossless file can be better than a CD but I don't see how a ripped lossles file can be better than the source. Just curious.............

 

[tommyskins]

I've had the Beresford 7510 dac and now got the Fubar4 both very good for the price but think the Fubar has the edge on the Beresford.

Hope this helps,

Paul.

 

[DavieCee]

Thanks Tommy.

Good to hear from people who have been there...

 

[DavieCee]

Follow on question and probably covered before so apologies...

A link will do.

The choice breaks down to 4 from what I can see :- Firestone Spitfire, Arcam rDAC, Cambridge Audio DacMagic, Beresford Caiman.

First priority will be sound performance (obviously) leaning from neutral to bright. Certainly not warm.

Second priority will be future proofing. Will they all be capable of handling the highest quality signals for the foreseeable future?

Thanks for any thoughts or opinions.

 

[Sorreltiger]

If you simply want a DAC between the Airport Express and your amp, the V-Dac would be another alternative - at a lower price point.

 

[DavieCee]

Sorreltiger:If you simply want a DAC between the Airport Express and your amp, the V-Dac would be another alternative - at a lower price point.

Oh great. Go and confuse me more!

Seriously though. Thanks for another simple but well reviewed solution.

 

[shooter]

DavieCee:
Sorreltiger:If you simply want a DAC between the Airport Express and your amp, the V-Dac would be another alternative - at a lower price point.

Oh great. Go and confuse me more!

Seriously though. Thanks for another simple but well reviewed solution.

You can do this but with the AE your unable to bypass the internal DAC. I'm not sure what sound you will get by adding a DAC this way.

Just to add the Chord Gem is a very good DAC and could be worth consideration.

 

[nij_1]

I think the DAC you buy is key to sound quality from your Macbook. I use a netbook and a V-Dac connected via USB and the sound quality, even using uncompressed WAV files, can no way match the quality of my Arcam cd192.
You may be able to get better results using the Macbook's optical output but I doubt the gains would be huge.
I am going to sell the V-Dac and try the new Arcam r-Dac as it utilises the WM8741 dac chip similar to the ones in my cd player.
I also used to own the Roksan Kandy cd player and I don't think a cheap DAC would improve on it's impressive midrange.

 

[Craig M.]

nij_1:I also used to own the Roksan Kandy cd player and I don't think a cheap DAC would improve on it's impressive midrange.

while i've only heard the dacmagic and beresfords, i'm inclined to agree with this.

 

[Craig M.]

DavieCee:
Follow on question and probably covered before so apologies...

A link will do.

The choice breaks down to 4 from what I can see :- Firestone Spitfire, Arcam rDAC, Cambridge Audio DacMagic, Beresford Caiman.

First priority will be sound performance (obviously) leaning from neutral to bright. Certainly not warm.

Second priority will be future proofing. Will they all be capable of handling the highest quality signals for the foreseeable future?

Thanks for any thoughts or opinions.

i haven't heard the spitfire, the review of the rdac hints at a warm balance, the dacmagic has, imo, a full, slightly bloated bass with a touch of a bright edge to the treble, haven't heard the caiman but the beresford 7510 had the kind of character you want and could be got pretty cheaply on ebay.

 

[DavieCee]

Craig M.:
i haven't heard the spitfire, the review of the rdac hints at a warm balance, the dacmagic has, imo, a full, slightly bloated bass with a touch of a bright edge to the treble, haven't heard the caiman but the beresford 7510 had the kind of character you want and could be got pretty cheaply on ebay.

Now, see, I thought this would have me heading in the right direction by eliminating the rDAC & DacMagic but...

This has me re-thinking
"I think the DAC you buy is key to sound quality from your Macbook. I use a netbook and a V-Dac connected via USB and the sound quality, even using uncompressed WAV files, can no way match the quality of my Arcam cd192.
You may be able to get better results using the Macbook's optical output but I doubt the gains would be huge.

I am going to sell the V-Dac and try the new Arcam r-Dac as it utilises the WM8741 dac chip similar to the ones in my cd player"

If the digital out (note:- digital opitical, not USB) does not bypass the internal soundcard then there doesn't seem to be much point.

Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[nij_1]

Sorry, I think my comment was confusing. The rDac has a WM 8741 chip inside it, similar to the ones inside my cd player, therefore hopefully giving a sound I am more accustomed to, when I play computer audio.

The digital outputs on a cd player (co-ax or optical) always bypasses the internal dacs, presenting digital signals only.

I still think the internal DAC chip of your Roksan would not benefit from a cheap external DAC, unless you want to change the character of its sound to something, say, with more rhythm. I sold the Kandy 'cos although it is wonderful with vocals, it lacked some performance lower in the frequency range. The cd192 gave me the best of both worlds.

 

[nij_1]

Blimey! when I read that back, I even confused myself!

What I'm trying to say is that I am trying to get my computer audio to sound as good as my cd player and the V-Dac doesn't do it. The rDac might.

 

[JoelSim]

In my experience a lossless file is about 95% as good as CD, that's using the DAC in my CDP with lossless so everything is exactly the same except for the source, which is a MacBook Air.

I still use CDs.

But I do stream Spotify Premium occasionally in the way mentioned above. It's useful to have the ability to do it.

Going back to your original point, I think the Arcam rDAC is the starting point, don't bother with anything cheaper if you want it to get close/exceed your Roksan.

 

[PJPro]

DavieCee:...
If the digital out (note:- digital opitical, not USB) does not bypass the internal soundcard then there doesn't seem to be much point.

Can anyone enlighten me?

What you are bypassing is the digital to analog conversion performed by the sound card in the "noisy" environment of the computer. A dedicated unit, electrically isolated from the computer which uses quality components to perform the conversion will make a much better job of it than the internal soundcard.

 

[PJPro]

JoelSim:
In my experience a lossless file is about 95% as good as CD, that's using the DAC in my CDP with lossless so everything is exactly the same except for the source, which is a MacBook Air.

I still use CDs.

What's your view of uncompressed files? The same as CD?

 

[shooter]

Isn't a lossless file an exact copy a CD?

If it is whats the benefit?

If it's not what's the point for home listening?

 

[JoelSim]

PJPro:JoelSim:
In my experience a lossless file is about 95% as good as CD, that's using the DAC in my CDP with lossless so everything is exactly the same except for the source, which is a MacBook Air.

I still use CDs.

What's your view of uncompressed files? The same as CD?

I've not tried anything other than Lossless, so can't comment.

 

[nij_1]

A lossless file is processed to reduce its file size but no information is thrown away, unlike mp3. However some people prefer to use WAV uncompressed because of the extra work the computer has to do to return lossless files back to their original state when playing them back.

The benefits of WAV over lossles are debatable.

 

[shooter]

nij_1:A lossless file is processed to reduce its file size but no information is thrown away, unlike mp3. However some people prefer to use WAV uncompressed because of the extra work the computer has to do to return lossless files back to their original state when playing them back.

The benefits of WAV over lossles are debatable.

Okay, if I then rip a CD in lossless and play though a DAC would this give better results than the CD in a player as there is no transport?

 

[PJPro]

The HDD is still a disk, albeit a bigger one.

 

[shooter]

PJPro:The HDD is still a disk, albeit a bigger one.

 

[nij_1]

It depends on the quality of the DAC.

There are those that say a HD drive is a more stable transport than a CD player and should give better results.

Personally I haven't got there yet, but I'm still experimenting.