Do I need a DAC?

[acalex]

Hi guys,

today I bought my first system, Ampli Vincent SV129 on Speakers Monitor Audio Silver RX6. I will be mainly playing from my fixed pc for now (so MP3 mainly) so the guy at the shop said I need a DAC to convert the signal from the pc to the ampli otherwise the quality won't be that good. So I bought it...

Now I am wondering if I really need it having to buy in the coming months the Sonos ZP90...is that a converter as well? Or they are complementary products? If so how would I need to connect the DAC and the ZP90 once I get it? They will deliver everything on Monday since I can still send the DAC back if I won't need it.

As far as I understood the ZP90 is a reader which connected to the router will read every source of music which is in the house and is connect wirelessly (music on y Iphone, on my notebooks, on my fixed pc etc...) so I see the ZP90 going into the DAC and then to the ampli, is that correct?

Thanks!

 

[acalex]

OK, I found the answer myself 😀!
Actually the ZP90 has a built-in DAC but it is not the best out there...so I suppose I might keep my Arcam rDAC to have better sound quality connecting the ZP90 into the DAC and then to the ampli.

 

[Rethep]

Why don't you listen first ? My Airport Express DAC (Apple) is not that bad and compared e.g. to a DACMagic not at all bad.

 

[BenLaw]

Apologies, I forgot to reply to your other thread. If playing from your pc, realistically you need a dac as using the internal dac and using the headphone out will give a very poor signal. While the zp90 dac can of course be improved upon, it is more than adequate, and the sq is more than acceptable without an external dac through my system, for example. Especially as you are just starting out, I would consider spending the money on getting the zp90 now, getting used to the sound, and considering adding a dac at a later date.

Many congratulations on the new system btw 🙂 Feel free to add some pics in the my system section if you get the chance 🙂

 

[acalex]

I certainly will once they will deliver everything cz today they forgot one of the two speakers 🙁!
So still have to wait...regarding the DAC...I bought it already so I guess I will buy soon the ZP90 to add internet streaming and multizone to my set up...really looking forward to it. Now I am planning how to put nicely the speakers in the room, any suggestion on things I should do/not do?!? Thanks again!