Do I need a DAC?

[nigel1457]

Hello everyone, my present set up is as follows: Toshiba laptop connected to a perfectly good 1980's Kenwood amp using a 3.5mm jack to RCA phono cable from the headphone socket to the amp. The amp drives Mission 760i SE's. 90% of my listening is either BBC internet radio or Spotify. My question is: would the addition of a DAC significantly improve the sound?

Thanks.

 

[idc]

Hi nigel. The answer is a simple yes. Taking the D to A conversion away from the PCs noisy soundcard (unless your laptop has a megga DAC in it) a separate DAC will do the job better.

 

[Alec]

Ditto.

Do you need one tho? Thats a different question.

 

[idc]

If you do 90% of your listening off the PC I would say that a DAC will be worthwhile.

 

[Alec]

Id agree, i was just being difficult again.

 

[Anonymous]

To be honest, so far I only have bad experiences with built-in sound cards in laptops (Toshiba, Fujitsu, Asus): the analog signal is not free from cracks & hisses, high frequency disturbance while scrolling etc. Plug in a good headphone and you will know. Perhaps some are better, in which case you save some money. Independent of this, whether it will be a big improvement will depend on the quality of the soundcard and dac in your system. In principle, the components used are not very expensive, it is just that the manufacturer has to put effort in the design of the laptop and avoid signal degradation. The inside of a computer is a rather hostile environment for analog signals.