Why do i need a DAC and are they all equal?

matthewjh

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I listen to music in 2 rooms of my house.

My lounge, where i use my main system as per my signature and in my home office where i have an older amp, CA S30 speakers and my 2017 MacBook Pro using a J2P lead.

I read lots about upgrading the DAC, but cant decide if it will be money well spent.

What sort of DAC would be recommended for each of the systems? Drummer recommended https://hifimediy.com/DACs this site, but i dont know which to get for each system and what i would expect to gain. Should i be looking at getting a refund if i cant tell the difference?

Thanks

Matt
 

matthewjh

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Just looking to add more life to the systems if thats possible.

Also, just thinking, am i missing out by not having external DACS

Matt
 

MajorFubar

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Only buy one if you can return it should you not be satisfied. After a minimum plateau has been cheaply reached, the differences become smaller every time you double the price. Five years ago I spent £300 on a HRT II+ USB DAC for my Mac Mini (this was of course before I went active), all the magazines raved about it being a giant killer and how it wiped the floor with many more-expensive DACs. I was always a bit disappointed. Yes it sounded different to the Mac Mini using a J2P, but it wasn't night and day, and unless I directly A-B'd them I couldn't tell you which was playing. It was probably the least effective 'sidegrade' I've ever made, and was sold last year with no tears or remorse to partly-fund my current set-up.
 
Thanks to all the DAC hype, perhaps I should just remind you that a CD player does have a built in DAC. That's what the signal passes through before leaving the Line Out sockets. So to answer your headline question, you don't need another one! I doubt it would be worth the outlay on your home system, but by all means try one that is returnable.

For the MacBook you could try a Dragonfly, but you'd more likely hear the benefit through headphones.
 

matthewpiano

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I'm dubious about the level of impact a DAC can have, including the often over-hyped level of advancement made in DACs. I've owned and heard lots of CD players more recent than my 90s Rotel, but even with it's now ancient DAC technology it remains one of the most musically involving CD players I've ever come across.
 

matthewjh

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ok, thanks guys.

Sort of confirmed what i'd suspected.

If i were to plug my macbook/iphone (playing from Tidal) into the front USB of the Marantz 6003, which dac will it use? i'm getting in knots trying to understand in which position (of the connectivity chain), an external dac controls each device.
 

muljao

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matthewjh said:
ok, thanks guys.

Sort of confirmed what i'd suspected.

If i were to plug my macbook/iphone (playing from Tidal) into the front USB of the Marantz 6003, which dac will it use? i'm getting in knots trying to understand in which position (of the connectivity chain), an external dac controls each device.

USB only carries digital, so if you plug mac into cd player with usb, and the sound is passed from cd to amp via rca, then the sound must be decoded from digital inside cd player.

As said dacs can sound different/maybe better or worse. To utilise a different dac while using mac you could use a usb dac. To use a different dac while using the cd player, any dac with a spdif input fed from cd player is what is required. Will it be better, hard to say. Something like an M-dac or an irdac 2 or a chord mojo could do both jobs
 

Gray

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matthewpiano said:
I'm dubious about the level of impact a DAC can have, including the often over-hyped level of advancement made in DACs. I've owned and heard lots of CD players more recent than my 90s Rotel, but even with it's now ancient DAC technology it remains one of the most musically involving CD players I've ever come across.

+1

Hi-Fi World gave an excellent review to the E-DAC (O-DAC) that I use to play CD / Hi-Res quality files.

I wrote to them to say that, good though the DAC is, my 14 year old Marantz CD6000KI was in no way inferior.

They made it 'Letter of the month' (April 2016) and gave a very detailed reply, eventually suggesting the Mojo.

I've still got the same DAC and the (now) 15 year old Marantz and your 'musically involving' description certainly applies to that.

(Hi-Fi World bunged me a pair of Kef Q100 for my story. WHF gets it for free but, to their credit, they do provide us with this forum. So good on them)
 

matthewjh

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muljao said:
matthewjh said:
ok, thanks guys.

Sort of confirmed what i'd suspected.

If i were to plug my macbook/iphone (playing from Tidal) into the front USB of the Marantz 6003, which dac will it use? i'm getting in knots trying to understand in which position (of the connectivity chain), an external dac controls each device.

USB only carries digital, so if you plug mac into cd player with usb, and the sound is passed from cd to amp via rca, then the sound must be decoded from digital inside cd player.

As said dacs can sound different/maybe better or worse. To utilise a different dac while using mac you could use a usb dac. To use a different dac while using the cd player, any dac with a spdif input fed from cd player is what is required. Will it be better, hard to say. Something like an M-dac or an irdac 2 or a chord mojo could do both jobs

ok. Thanks. I get it now. If it's coming from a digital source it'll need a dac, if it's coming from rca or 3.5mm it'll have gone through the onboard dac. To bypass the maranta dac, I'll need spdif cable to new dac to rca to amplifier. USB to dac to amplifier if using MacBook.

Thanks again
 

iMark

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Last year we bought a Yamaha R-N602 to replace an all analogue Yamaha R-S500, a Cambridge Audio DACMagic and an Airport Express.

The R-N602 has got all the analogue and digital inputs (including USB) we need and does AirPlay streaming from our Macs and iPads. It's a great one box solution. Onkyo make similar stereo receivers. They've now even got one with HDMI inputs (great for SACD/Bluray Audio). The DAC in the Yamaha doesn't seem to be a compromise compared to the previous kit.
 

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