need some advice to improve sound

[admin_exported]

Hi guys, my first post on here so be nice!

Currently have a NAD326 bee amp hooked up to an Ipod Classic 160gb via a standard Onkyo Ipod dock via RCA analogue. Speakers are wharfedale diamond 9.1. Problem is it sounds a bit flat, doesn't really excite me. Could the DAC in the ipod be the weak link? I also have an Onkyo 515 micro system hooked up to the nad simply for DAB and very occasional CD playback. The Onkyo has an optical in, and it says a Wolfson DAC inside that. The quality of which I'm not sure.

My questions are;

1. would investing in the Onkyo digital dock, and something such as a V-DAC give me a significant and noticable improvement over the Ipod docked in the standard Onkyo dock. This would set me back about £280 and looks like the option to go for, but only if I'd get better sound.

2. or Perhaps the Onkyo digital dock straight into the CS515 micro system and utilise the DAC inbuilt in that

3. Am open to other options to get more pleasure from my Nad and Diamonds with my main source being MP3's,

Budget is around £300 MAX, but want to get the best sound possible.

 

[gbhsi1]

bifftanner1:
Hi guys, my first post on here so be nice!

Currently have a NAD326 bee amp hooked up to an Ipod Classic 160gb via a standard Onkyo Ipod dock via RCA analogue. Speakers are wharfedale diamond 9.1. Problem is it sounds a bit flat, doesn't really excite me. Could the DAC in the ipod be the weak link? I also have an Onkyo 515 micro system hooked up to the nad simply for DAB and very occasional CD playback. The Onkyo has an optical in, and it says a Wolfson DAC inside that. The quality of which I'm not sure.

My questions are;

1. would investing in the Onkyo digital dock, and something such as a V-DAC give me a significant and noticable improvement over the Ipod docked in the standard Onkyo dock. This would set me back about £280 and looks like the option to go for, but only if I'd get better sound.

2. or Perhaps the Onkyo digital dock straight into the CS515 micro system and utilise the DAC inbuilt in that

3. Am open to other options to get more pleasure from my Nad and Diamonds with my main source being MP3's,

Budget is around £300 MAX, but want to get the best sound possible.

Option 1 will give you the best results.

 

[idc]

I also vote for option 1. Then later on look to upgrade the amp and speakers.

You say that you use MP3s, what are you using exactly. With an Onkyo dock, V-DAC as your source you are more likely to hear the benefits of higher (lossless) bit rates.

 

[Craig M.]

my first thought on reading that, is you probably have a warm sounding amp and speakers and might be better off with a lean/bright sounding dac to offset them. maybe a beresford 7510? or change your speakers for something with more bite to the sound.

 

[Anonymous]

The most obvious upgrade would be higher file quality. No hi-fi equipment can bring back what's lost in file compression.

MP3 might be OK, but mostly they sound just 'flat'. Only with high quality files you'll benefit from a separate DAC.

Rather than buying a digital dock, I would follow this upgrade path:

1, re-ripping whatever music you've got on CD to Apple Lossless.

2, be conscious about bitrates when downloading new music. 256 kbps AAC or 320 kbps MP3 should be your minimum.

With better file quality you'll need more storage space. So the next step would be

3, make your computer your main music player.

4, buy whatever equipment needed to do this as convenient as possible, like

a, a DAC with optical input (to avoid noise problems that might occur while connecting a computer to a hi-fi set with metal wires).

b, an AirPort Express or other device for wireless transmission.

c, whatever storage needed for your growing music collection....

 

[crusaderlord]

i used to have an Arcam rdock and upgraded to a wadia 170i with v-dac.

hopefully it will help you to know that i found a significant improvement using the digital feed into the v-dac, which for the money is a great dac

 

[Anonymous]

The Onkyo will do exactly the same job as the Wadia, at half the prize: they both bypass the iPod's DAC so you can replace it with a better one. It's this other DAC that improves the sound.

But as I said, if the 'flat' sound is caused by MP3 compression, not even the world's best DAC can remove that.

Some DACs might 'colour' the sound though, and some people might consider that 'improvement'.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, must say I am impressed and blown away by the rapidness in response, cheers guys.

From what's been said I feel that the problem may be in that I have mostly 128kbps MP3's, however, I do also have some lossless files and high bit rate files and something seems to be missing soundwise. Its hard to describe, but there is just something lacking that I can't put my finger on.

From another point of view, would I get a better sound from a streaming device such as a Squeezebox Duet connected straight to the amp, than with the Ipod to the Amp? What are people's views on using a Squeezebox as a main source for music quality wise?

many thanks

 

[nij_1]

Although the sound quality through a regular ipod dock can be good, the digital to analogue processing is basic at best. It sounds flat because the 'dynamics' of the sound are missing. Extracting the native digital signal using the Onkyo digital dock and processing it through a quality off-board dac will provide you with the improvement in sound you're looking for.

Hope this helped

 

[Anonymous]

many thanks

How would using a combination such as an Onkyo ND-S1 dock and a V-Dac compare to say a Nad C545 CDP, or even against a squeezebox for sound. Which would give me the best sound? The reason I mention the V-dac is purely price, does this compare to the DAC in the nad 545, or would it in fact surpass the DAC in the Nad?

So many questions but want to get it right.

Much appreciated