Worth getting a DAC for Freeview radio?

[Hugh_Hanson]

Hi,

Im currantly running my tv though a yamaha A-S500 amp and a pair of BX2s but was thinking of getting a DAC to improve sound quality when listening to freeview radio and netlix.

Is it worth getting a DAC for this or not as i know BBC 6 radio only streams at 192bit i believe?

i was thinking of a couple of DACs:

Arcam rDAC or the DACMAGIC 100

my price range is not much £200-£350

Cheers

-Hugh

P.S my tv does not have RCA or coax outputs so only optical is an option sadly.

 

[pauln]

Probably not. Last year I hooked up an Audio-gd NFB-12 DAC to my TV, as a test, expecting to hear an improvement but there was none as far as I could tell. It went back into the office with the computer and I saved myself a couple of hundred quid.

 

[Hugh_Hanson]

Hmm that's a shame, was looking forward to upgrading my system. Still anyone know if the Arcam irDAC optical is 24/192 and is the DacMagic 100 optical in native 24/192 or is it upscaled?

 

[pauln]

Save up for better speakers, by far the biggest bang for buck upgrade you can make. IMHO.

 

[jerry klinger]

It depends on the quality of DAC in the TV! My 3-yr old Panny sounds good though the sound is noticeably better through a DAC or streamer above the £500 mark. Below that, I don't think it's worth it - though I've not tried the irdac at home.

 

[chebby]

It depends on the quality of DAC in the TV!

Only if the OP has RCA analogue outputs from his TV.

He doesn't...

P.S my tv does not have RCA or coax outputs so only optical is an option sadly.

If - like you and I - you use the optical digital output from the TV to an external DAC (or my all-in-one) then no conversion takes place in the TV. It just passes digital 'un-molested' so the quality of the TV's DAC is a moot point.

The OP should either buy an external DAC, or buy an equivalent quality amplifier with a built-in DAC (with optical provision) or plug in some kind of Sonos / AirPort type solution (with control apps on a smartphone or iPod Touch or whatever).

 

[pauln]

It depends on the quality of DAC in the TV!

Only if the OP has RCA analogue outputs from his TV.

He doesn't...

P.S my tv does not have RCA or coax outputs so only optical is an option sadly.

If - like you and I - you use the optical digital output from the TV to an external DAC (or my all-in-one) then no conversion takes place in the TV. It just passes digital 'un-molested' so the quality of the TV's DAC is a moot point.

The OP should either buy an external DAC, or buy an equivalent quality amplifier with a built-in DAC (with optical provision) or plug in some kind of Sonos / AirPort type solution (with control apps on a smartphone or iPod Touch or whatever).

He also says:

Im currantly running my tv though a yamaha A-S500 amp

So how's he doing that without analogue outputs?

 

[ChristineL]

Maybe he gets analog out of Scart, maybe when he talks about not having RCA he means for the digital output, complaining only optical is avaiable?