DACs and FLACs - help needed

[sthomas048]

Okay, so i still love the idea of a cdp. Nice little boxes. But can someone help me regarding DACs ? What i want to do is be able to play FLAC music files from my laptop to my hifi amplifier via USB. Can it be done ? Is the sound quality available via USB any good ? As much as i love the mp3 i much prefer lossless. Im not interested in streaming audio that much at the moment. Also what would be the best DAC for £200 or less ?

Anyone here heared/own a Monrio Asty digital amplifier ? Seems a bargain and it plays FLAC too.

Sorry if this question has been asked before !

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

You can do that right now using a jack to stereo RCA cable into your amp (you'll then be using the DAC in your laptop).

For improved SQ you can indeed get a usb DAC like the HRT Streamer II.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

sthomas048:
Okay, so i still love the idea of a cdp. Nice little boxes. But can someone help me regarding DACs ? What i want to do is be able to play FLAC music files from my laptop to my hifi amplifier via USB. Can it be done ? Is the sound quality available via USB any good ? As much as i love the mp3 i much prefer lossless. Im not interested in streaming audio that much at the moment. Also what would be the best DAC for £200 or less ?

Anyone here heared/own a Monrio Asty digital amplifier ? Seems a bargain and it plays FLAC too.

Sorry if this question has been asked before !

Thanks.

Yes, this s very simple; DacMagic, Beresford, Music Fidelity, among others have circa £200 DAC's with USB connectivity. Be ready to prefer the sound over your cdp! What amp, cdp and speakers do you have?

 

[sthomas048]

I dont have a system at the moment, im in the process of building a new one - hence thinking about buying a cdp or just getting a dac. So a usb DAC would play my FLAC files, cool !

 

[bay24]

sthomas048:I dont have a system at the moment, im in the process of building a new one - hence thinking about buying a cdp or just getting a dac. So a usb DAC would play my FLAC files, cool !

no idea of your budget but if you still want a CD player there are CD players which you can utilize the DAC of like Cambridge audio 740 and 840 (although only via optical or coaxial). The new Audiolab 8200 CD player looks good; has optical, coaxial and USB but it is £700 (just got a very good review in what hifi too)

 

[Crocodile]

DACs don't deal with codecs, that will be down to whatever software you use for playback on the PC. So any DAC will play FLAC as long as the playback software supports it. Windows Media for example doesn't by default but there are third party add-ins. Plenty of other software around though.

Streaming may well provide better quality than a direct connection as it's not always easy to get Windows to present a bit perfect output to the DAC due to various bits of processing by the OS.

ASIO

 

[Anonymous]

Well, FLAC is normally 24 bits, while USB DACs only support 16 bits.

So, if you want to play FLAC without your computer messing with the signal, you'll have to use a S/PDIF interface (preferably with an optical cable, to avoid potential noise problems). Or, instead of a USB DAC, use a USB sound card with a dedicated driver that provide a 24 bit connection.

 

[sthomas048]

Fahnsen:
Well, FLAC is normally 24 bits, while USB DACs only support 16 bits.

So, if you want to play FLAC without your computer messing with the signal, you'll have to use a S/PDIF interface (preferably with an optical cable, to avoid potential noise problems). Or, instead of a USB DAC, use a USB sound card with a dedicated driver that provide a 24 bit connection.

Does this mean the DAC will automatically convert a 24bit FLAC down to 16 bits ? or would i have to convert all my FLAC files to 16 bit ?

 

[Anonymous]

Search for reviews of Ayre QB-9. There's quite many, all praising this USB DAC (which, Fahnsen, does support 24bits).
U can start with this one:

Or rather you can't, as it flies in the face of House Rules - MODS

Hopefully it will be compared to Naim's soon.
Aviram.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Fahnsen:
Well, FLAC is normally 24 bits, while USB DACs only support 16 bits.

So, if you want to play FLAC without your computer messing with the signal, you'll have to use a S/PDIF interface (preferably with an optical cable, to avoid potential noise problems). Or, instead of a USB DAC, use a USB sound card with a dedicated driver that provide a 24 bit connection.

Where did you get that incorrect information from?? I have about 1,000 albums and maybe 7 are 24bit. They are all FLACs.

If you rip a CD, it will invariably be 16bit 44.1hz. So, be it FLAC, mp3 or whatever, it will still be 16bit. USB, no problem whatsoever.

 

[PJPro]

Crocodile:
Streaming may well provide better quality than a direct connection as it's not always easy to get Windows to present a bit perfect output to the DAC due to various bits of processing by the OS.

ASIO

Please see my useful threads for guides on optimising windows for audio and configuring foobar2000 for bit perfect playback (using flac). Hope it helps

 

[sthomas048]

Gerrardasnails:Fahnsen:
Well, FLAC is normally 24 bits, while USB DACs only support 16 bits.

So, if you want to play FLAC without your computer messing with the signal, you'll have to use a S/PDIF interface (preferably with an optical cable, to avoid potential noise problems). Or, instead of a USB DAC, use a USB sound card with a dedicated driver that provide a 24 bit connection.

Where did you get that incorrect information from?? I have about 1,000 albums and maybe 7 are 24bit. They are all FLACs.

If you rip a CD, it will invariably be 16bit 44.1hz. So, be it FLAC, mp3 or whatever, it will still be 16bit. USB, no problem whatsoever.

Thank you. Im sure there are many folk like me who are a little confused with how DACs operate via laptops, so your message is a big help. I was considering getting a HRT Music Streamer USB DAC. Another advantage of laptop based music is that i now have more cash spare to dedicate to a really good amplifier, maybe a valve.

 

[sthomas048]

PJPro:Crocodile:
Streaming may well provide better quality than a direct connection as it's not always easy to get Windows to present a bit perfect output to the DAC due to various bits of processing by the OS.

ASIO

Please see my useful threads for guides on optimising windows for audio and configuring foobar2000 for bit perfect playback (using flac). Hope it helps

Thank you. Again, this is very helpful indeed. I will take a look at your useful threads now.

 

[nads]

DACs dont "play" anything.

they just convert digital signals to analogue signals.

As PJPro has said your PC will play the files and can then output the digital signal to a DAC. Or you can look at a media player to play the files stored on the PC or an external storage system like a NAS.

Have fun.

 

[cassper]

Well, you don't strictly need a computer to play FLAC's. In the living room it looks not too stylish in my opinion. I use 3 small black boxes for my digital collection. First one is a 1 TB hard drive WD Elements. Nice simple design, no flashing lights. The second one is WD TV Live media player. Extremely small, but deals with almost all possible media formats and codecs. Only one trade off - no gapless playback. From WD TV Live I use optical out via a toslink cable into the third box - Beresford Caiman DAC. Nice unit, serves me also as a headphone amp for my Sennheiser HD600. But most importandly - this setup sounds as good as any CD player under 500Euro. Not that I heard so many of them, but it really sounds decent. Can post pics of that setup later if you want to see how it looks.

 

[ID.]

Fahnsen:
Well, FLAC is normally 24 bits, while USB DACs only support 16 bits.

As pointed out, both of these are incorrect. For example, the USB input on my DAC take up to 24/96, although I don't know enough about it to tell you whether 24/96 is the maximum that USB is capable of transmitting.