The difference DAC makes

[DJ-pressure]

Hi Guys,

I've just had another thought. As lots of times me and my girlfriend listening to music from Itunes or youtube the question arrised:

How big difference woul DAC make???????????

At the moment I've got laptop conected to amp via qued ( 3.5cmm to 2rca ) cable from the headphone port.

 

[paradiziac]

A decent DAC will give you a similar sound from your computer as you get from your CD player.

 

[DJ-pressure]

Thanks for the reply.

Can you explain how that can be if the files on computer are in mp3 and other formats wich are not in full quality?

will the HRT Music Streamer II be good enough... or something like Rega DAC would be mutch better.

??????????

Thanks in advance

 

[Ryan92]

Thats where experimenting with lossless rips (or downloads) comes in. FLAC WAV and Apple lossless offer better sound quality IMO and also much bigger file sizes. There are some who say they can't hear the difference between a 320Kbps MP3 file and a lossless equivelant. That would be for you to decide

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, not sure whether you will decide it's worth the outlay for the sound improvement but I have a mix of 256kbps and lossless tracks in iTunes on my laptop and I play all my music through this. I run the laptop through a Musical Fidelity V-Link II into a Rega DAC and then into my amp.

The V-Link II has an asynchronous USB connection so produces a clean and consistent output from the USB port and there is an optical output from the V-Link which I then connect to the DAC with.

To me this makes a very significant difference to the quality of the sound, definitely worth taking your laptop into a hi-fi shop and linking it up to a Rega DAC (or other DACS) to see whether you consider it is worth spending the money on one.

By the way, as you use iTunes have you downloaded the free Remote application which allows you to use your iPhone, iTouch or iPad as a wireless remote for iTunes on your laptop. It mirrors the library in the laptop version of your iTunes so means you can access every track you own without having to get up and change it on the computer/laptop. Excellent.

 

[paradiziac]

Can you explain how that can be if the files on computer are in mp3 and other formats wich are not in full quality?

will the HRT Music Streamer II be good enough... or something like Rega DAC would be mutch better.

1. You're right to think that compressed music formats such as mp3 throw away information from the original file. How much information is thrown away depends on the bit rate setting used when the track is encoded. At high bit rates, it gets hard to tell the difference unless you have a trained ear and very good equipment. It also depends on the type of music.

Try it: http://mp3ornot.com/

2. HRT II has a great reputation. If you went for the Rega DAC, its USB input isn't great so to get the best from it you'd need a USB converter such as the V-Link II as the poster above said. But on the plus side, you could use the Rega dac to play your CDs through--it might improve the sound from your CD player. I can't say which DAC would sound better, my guess would be that it would be close.

For a cheap n cheerful solution, try the Behringer UCA202.

 

[DJ-pressure]

Thank you Guys for your help.

I think that V-Link II and Rega Dac would be my choice.

At the moment I've got another issue. I've just received my Tannoy DC6T and got my A-400 runing them.

Campared to my Jamo's the Tannoy's arent great. Bass aint that deep, there is lack of live in them, I appreciated my Jamo's much more. however some of the high frequency's seemed to appear in Tannoy's much more than in Jamo's. This still hasn't changed a fact that Tannoy's sound poorer.

Can you tell if that is because of the amp - A-400 is just not good with them? or My Jamos are that good?

If so, which amp up to 500note ( Rega brio R? , Marantz PM6004) can get the real lively sound from them?