How much should i spend on external dac? Any suggestions?

[harry_t]

Hi all,

i bought recently the pro-ject stream box ds which is connected to an integrated amplifier primare a30.1. To tell you the truth i'm not very satisfied with the sound quality (no detail and too electronic) but i couldn't afford to purchase a superior streamer like Naim's. Now, i suppose a solution for my hi-fi system in the near future, is to connect my streamer to an external dac. Any suggestions for used good quality dacs? My budget is up to 1000 euros maximum. Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Harry

 

[harry_t]

anyone?

 

[jcbrum]

Harry, I'm a bit surprised, too, that no-one has responded so far, but possibly your question does not have a simple answer.

My response may not be exactly what you're expecting but I'll have a go.

I'm a bit surprised that you attribute your dissatisfaction with your existing sound quality to the present DAC in your equipment, and that you expect to cure the problems by adding an external DAC.

You say you find the sound has 'no detail', and is 'too electronic'. I suspect the solution might be to address the situation a bit more widely than to simply assume that replacing the DAC will cure it.

Tell us precisely in what original form your music resides. Is it from ripped CDs, or a streaming library source such as Spotify, or purchased downloads, and what is the file format ?

Have you played any of your files on any other equipment to your satisfaction ?

What loudspeakers are you using ? Have you listened on headphones ?

I have heard DACs which cost less than €50 sound just as good as ones which cost more than €1000.

I think we need to know a bit more about your equipment, and your preferences, - tell us a much as you can, please.

JC

 

[spiny norman]

My response may not be exactly what you're expecting but I'll have a go.

I suspect the solution might be to address the situation a bit more widely than to simply assume that replacing the DAC will cure it.

What loudspeakers are you using ? Have you listened on headphones ?

Anyone want to take a wild stab at where this one is going?

 

[jcbrum]

Well, I don't know where it's going, but I can see where you're coming from Norman. Do you have any useful point to make ?

 

[Overdose]

Does he ever?

A very apt pen-name.

 

[harry_t]

hi and thanks for your detailed relpy jcbrum!

i am just comparing the sound i get with the one using primare cd21 which was my previous source. I also use a wd NAS 2tb and a pair of Celius 202 Triangle. So am i wrong to assume that is a dac's issue?

Regards,

Harry

 

[Andrew Everard]

i am just comparing the sound i get with the one using primare cd21 which was my previous source. I also use a wd NAS 2tb and a pair of Celius 202 Triangle. So am i wrong to assume that is a dac's issue?

A better DAC may well help: something like the Audiolab M-DAC would be well worth exploring, although I'd try to audition one in your system before you decide whether or not to buy.

I have to say I didn't find the Pro-ject to be as you describe when I listened to it – could it be down to how you are storing your music? It'd help to know the format( or formats ) you're using on the NAS.

 

[Rimse]

well,good dac won't make your system sound worse.I like bryston dac.I can connect it to diffrent amps and it always sounds good.Ayre dac is good ,it cost a bit more than bryston used

 

[jcbrum]

I think there is merit in both the previous posts, but I feel you may learn something from a DAC substitution, as you suggest.

I would be inclined to invest c. £30 in a FiiO D3 192/24 DAC.

It's available from Amazon at the moment for £29.99 +pp, and would give you a comparison with your existing DAC.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-192KHz-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B005PWPUW6

Although I've heard good reports from others, I've not tried it myself, but if it didn't confirm your suspicions you could sell it on without losing much.

If that doesn't give any guidance, I suggest temporarily trying a different source for your music files. Will your streamer work from a usb stick ?

JC

 

[jcbrum]

p.s. If the FiiO DAC did give you a better sound you could then go on to try out other DACs at your leisure, and as the opportunity arose.

p.p.s. I've just noticed that Amazon are doing it with free post and packing.

 

[harry_t]

Hi Andrew,

95% of my music in NAS is in wav format

Regards,

Harry

 

[harry_t]

Andrew hi,

does the software play any significant role in Cd ripping? (I've ripped in wav 80% of my cd collection and the other 20% i've converted wav from mp3) If yes could you recommend any software?

Thanks again,

Harry

 

[The_Lhc]

20% i've converted wav from mp3

Just so you know, that was a pointless exercise, all you're doing is using up significantly more space, you'll get no audio benefit from doing that. mp3 is lossy, what's lost is lost, you can't put it back by converting to WAV, so it'll sound exactly the same, use a lot more space and you'll have lost the majority of the tags that you may have had.

 

[harry_t]

Thanks a lot! I didn't know that!....i thought wav is better than mp3 in all circumstances...

 

[The_Lhc]

Thanks a lot! I didn't know that!....i thought wav is better than mp3 in all circumstances...

Only if you're starting from scratch (ie direct from CD), as I said what's lost is lost, there's no way of getting that information back.

Either way you'd probably be better off using FLAC or another lossless format, they take up less space than WAV but give you full tagging, so they're easier to use with media players.

 

[harry_t]

Since you've mentioned tagging...can wav files being tagged? Or i have to do something extra i mean with specific software? I don't understand why my project streamer doesn't supports the titles which i have put to my wav files (after i ripped them). Thanks again

Harry

 

[The_Lhc]

Since you've mentioned tagging...can wav files being tagged? Or i have to do something extra i mean with specific software? I don't understand why my project streamer doesn't supports the titles which i have put to my wav files (after i ripped them). Thanks again

This is why WAV files aren't ideal. The WAV format predates tagging by many years, so the basic WAV format doesn't support much tagging at all. If you're ripping from CDs, use something like dbPowerAmp (other rippers are available but that's what I use), select FLAC (might be worth checking if the Pro-Ject streamer supports it, I don't know), and the program will fill in all the tagging details for you (assuming you aren't ripping something so obscure or new that nobody else has submitted it to the online databases). If you're lucky it'll put the album art on as well (I find dbPowerAmp to be a bit hit and miss with Album art, sometimes it does, sometimes not, you can add yourself if it doesn't find it though).

Once that's done the streamer will read all the info off the Tags and you'll get everything you could possibly want...

 

[Andrew Everard]

does the software play any significant role in Cd ripping? (I've ripped in wav 80% of my cd collection and the other 20% i've converted wav from mp3) If yes could you recommend any software?

Asuming the drive you're using for ripping and the software is capable of extracting the data from the disc and compressing it accurately, there's no logical reason why it should make any difference, although I know some claim different rippers/software give them better results.

I'm with Lhc on the 'no point in turning MP3s into WAV' thing – once the data is lost in the lossy MP3 compression, you're not going to recover it in converting to MP3, and all you'll do is increase the file sizes.

At the moment most of my music is ripped to FLAC for exactly that tagging reason, and transcoded on the fly by the server software to WAV, so the network player 'sees' WAV files, but with tags. Seems to work pretty well.

But that last bit is something of an experiment at the moment – I'm running three or four server packages on the NAS drive I have, and have yet to have a full play with the capabilities of all of them.

 

[harry_t]

Thank you all for your support!

i

 

[Fulci]

£180 on a Beresford Bushmaster DAC is more than enough. If you don't like it you have a few days for a refund and will be at least as good as an mdac.