External DAC via USB or Optical straight from a Mac?

[Racingsnake13]

I've recently subscribed to Tidal and am playing via a cheap optical cable from my Mac to my Onkyo AV. The improvement over my old Apple TV sourced 256kb AAC over HDMI to the Onk is significant. Got me wondering whether more improvements can be squeezed for minimal cost.

Reading the Chord company specs on cables, it seems as if optical is the poorest of digital options. Am I likely to see a greater improvement by getting a high end optical cable, or by paying a little more and adding an arcam irDAC via USB in and Co-Ax out.

AV is Onkyo TX-NR905 with Burr Brown DAC, with Monitor Audio GS-60's downstream.

Opinions appreciated.

 

[SteveR750]

I don't think your optical cable will make any difference, so long as it meets the relevant data transmission spec, buying a more exepensive one won't help, but keep it as short as possible, and obviously don't kink it.

If you decide to use an extrenal DAC and USB connection, all you are doing is effectively replacing the DAC in your Onkyo. The USB async connection isn't intrinsically better, it''s how the DAC is implemented; although it seems that most good external cheaper DACs have opted for the async mode using a proprietry ASIO driver. I don't know how good the DAC is in your receiver, but I'd be surprised if there is much of a difference by adding the arcam DAC. Optical out from a Mac (assume you are using itunes in bit perfect configuration) is as good as any digital streaming source.