Need basic advice on DAC

[e30m3]

I am new to good music. Currently use a Cambridge Audio 840A amp, CA 350C CD, Epos Epic 1 speakers, Fuhrmann power conditioner, Monster ultra series interconnects and speaker cable, older subwoofer.

I know nothing about DAC's. I want to be able to run music off iPod. Is the DACmagic a good choice, DACmagic Plus? What is the best way to connect to CD and to amp? Since that is a low end CD player, does that run through the DAC?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Listen to jazz, classical, rock - in that order.

 

[Josuah]

You would connect your CD player or iPod transport (like the Wadia 170i) to a DAC via a coaxial or optical S/PDIF cable.

Then connect your DAC analog outputs to your Cambridge Audio 840A stereo analog inputs.

 

[e30m3]

Ii

If anyone is facing similar questions, here is my progress so far.

Purchased Cambridge audio DACmagic 100. Inexpensive and effective.

Connected CD player thru Audioquest VDM-1 cable to DAC

Connected TV to DAC thru Toslink

Decided not to use iPod and am using laptop directly thru USB cable to DAC via Audioquest Forest.

Do not know anything about audioquest cables, but they were recommended by salesman.

-----

Very pleased with performance of DAC. I am not an audiophile and do not have golden ears. But to my inexperienced ears, there is an undeniable improvement in separation, detail, and clarity. Very impressed - no brainer on value. Now I need to upgrade my speakers.

 

[Grador]

For future purchases, getting a high end interconnect for digital is completely pointless. As long as the digital signal makes it from point to point there no loss of data/quality, in other words if the cable is working at all you are getting 100% of the quality the signal has to offer. Glad you're enjoying your new DAC!

 

[Impelled]

Thats not quite true.
More revealing hifi equipment can expose the problems caused by jitter.
A low quality or too long SPDIF cable adds to jitter.

Glad you are happy op.

 

[agarwalro]

More revealing hifi equipment can expose the problems caused by jitter.

We eschew statements like this one. The device or system needs to be malfunctioning or be out of specification to produce audible jitter distortion. Further, in room listening conditions will easily obfuscate any jitter in digital signal processing.

A low quality or too long SPDIF cable adds to jitter.

Are you saying my fiddly bits are dirty .

 

[jonnythan]

As far as I know there is no way to get digital audio out of an iPod. It only has headphone and line-level outputs. The Wadio 170i then presumably uses an A/D conversion process to create the signal for its digital outputs, which is completely pointless.

 

[CaliMon]

I could be wrong, but I think you can get a cable that connects to the bottom or the PC link which also has a USB cable attached. My understanding is some of these allow digital streaming into a receiver if that receiver was designed to look up the file system similar to the way the PC does. I have a reciever that does this.

Like I said, I could be wrong though. Maybe someone else knows.

 

[bikemig]

There are a variety of ways to get a digital stream out of an ipod. The cheapest is the pure ipod dock I-20 which runs $100: Amazon.com: PURE i-20 Digital Dock for iPod/iPhone with Hi-Fi Quality Audio and Video Output: MP3 Players & Accessories.

The HRT istreamer runs $200: Amazon.com: HRT iStreamer Outboard DAC for iDevices: Electronics.

The nuforce icon ido: Amazon.com: NuForce Icon iDo (Blue Color, Audiophile-Grade DAC & Headphone Amp for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch): Electronics

Full disclosure, I don't own any of these devices, . I may buy the pure ipod dock one of these days once I get a music system set up in my workshop.

 

[Impelled]

We eschew statements like this one. The device or system needs to be malfunctioning or be out of specification to produce audible jitter distortion. Further, in room listening conditions will easily obfuscate any jitter in digital signal processing.

Maybe you have missed articles on the topic, dont have the equipment to tell the difference or cant tell the difference.
This review gives a good summation but going to an outer extreme.
Unless you have taken care to reduce jitter, chances are it is affecting the quality. whether that matters though is dictated by your equipment and hearing.
Calyx Femto DAC Review

The buzzword in the world of DACs for the past decade has undoubtedly been ‘jitter’, which simply put, is the timing error in the digital stream of ones and zeros before the signal is converted from digital to analog. Everything else being equal, the DACs with lower jitter tend to sound better. Thanks to technology advances over the past few years, the better DACs have been able to reduce jitter to a few hundred pico seconds. When you consider that a pico second is one trillionth of a second, a DAC with jitter of a few hundred pico seconds would seem to be pretty good stuff. However, human hearing is so incredibly sensitive, many of us can still hear and be bothered by jitter measuring a few hundred pico seconds.



This being the case, I was thrilled to learn that Dr. Seungmok Yi, the founder of Digital and Analog, made a breakthrough in jitter reduction and would soon release a DAC under the Calyx brand, with jitter so low, it has to be measured in femto seconds, which is one quadrillionth of a second.



To help you get a more real world understanding of these units of measure, let me put it in another way: The difference between a picosecond and a regular second is the difference between one regular second and 31,700 years. If you think that is huge, then consider this; the difference between one femtosecond and a regular second is the difference between one regular second and 31.7 million years.

Are you saying my fiddly bits are dirty .

Its fairly likely
Depends how good your nose is whether you can smell them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Maybe you have missed articles on the topic...

Most reviews/articles are nothing more than pure advertisement for the companies. Nothing more.

External DAC is a total waste of money that could be used instead for better speakers.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Most reviews/articles are nothing more than pure advertisement for the companies. Nothing more.

External DAC is a total waste of money that could be used instead for better speakers.

Like newer sub and/or proper crossover, maybe something like MiniDSP

 

[Impelled]

Most reviews/articles are nothing more than pure advertisement for the companies. Nothing more.

Yes there is some blustering for sales, but it does not dis-count that people can appreciate the difference.
You acknowledge that 'some' articles are not pure advertising


I can prove it instantly here by connecting to my DAC with a 2 metre SPDIF lead and via USB from my PC or by using another USB to SPDIF converter.
My DAC has very good jitter removal on USB but none on SPDIF, so the SPDIF signal has to be as clean as possible.

The Minimax Tube DAC plus uses a custom M2Tech Hiface USB to SPDIF converter internally.
I have a cheaper version of the M2Tech Hiface USB to SPDIF converter here, it sounds better than SPDIF out from my soundcard but not as good as the direct USB to DAC connection.

If there is no difference to be made , why do connection methods and different USB to SPDIF converters make a difference?

External DAC is a total waste of money that could be used instead for better speakers.

Depends what speakers you have.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Yes there is some blustering for sales, but it does not dis-count that people can appreciate the difference.
You acknowledge that 'some' articles are not pure advertising


I can prove it instantly here by connecting to my DAC with a 2 metre SPDIF lead and via USB from my PC or by using another USB to SPDIF converter.
My DAC has very good jitter removal on USB but none on SPDIF, so the SPDIF signal has to be as clean as possible.

The Minimax Tube DAC plus uses a custom M2Tech Hiface USB to SPDIF converter internally.
I have a cheaper version of the M2Tech Hiface USB to SPDIF converter here, it sounds better than SPDIF out from my soundcard but not as good as the direct USB to DAC connection.

If there is no difference to be made , why do connection methods and different USB to SPDIF converters make a difference?


Depends what speakers you have.

Impelled, I understand what you "impelled" to post, but you talking about things you don't understand. Confusing PC's components electrical noise and ground loop issues with jitter and DAC "features"

However , not everything is lost for you yet - there is a place where DACs, expensive digital cables and cable risers a discussed and respected
Polk forums Club Polk

Check it out and you'd have much easier time blending in with crowds

I'm not going to feed you any further. Enjoy you stay here by actually trying to learn something new or like I said - Polk Forums will embrace you with both arms open

p.s: $29 Behringer UCA202 USB DAC is perfectly capable of doing more than decent job in most cases and get the extra 0.1% of SQ you'd need to put significantly more money into DAC and get very marginal improvements if any any other than placebo... Vast majority of budget modern receivers can do DAC on par with most expensive external DACs

 

[Impelled]

Like newer sub and/or proper crossover

It depends what speakers you have already have.

maybe something like MiniDSP

I considered the MiniDSP but it has a huge flaw, it only works on analogue signals in and out.
Analogue audio from your DAC has to go through an ADC which is bad enough, but then the MiniDSP becomes your final DAC, eliminating any benefit of having a decent DAC to start with.

 

[Impelled]

Impelled, I understand what you "impelled" to post, but you talking about things you don't understand. Confusing PC's components electrical noise and ground loop issues with jitter and DAC "features"

However , not everything is lost for you yet - there is a place where DACs, expensive digital cables and cable risers a discussed and respected
Polk forums Club Polk

Check it out and you'd have much easier time blending in with crowds

I'm not going to feed you any further. Enjoy you stay here by actually trying to learn something new or like I said - Polk Forums will embrace you with both arms open

p.s: $29 Behringer UCA202 USB DAC is perfectly capable of doing more than decent job in most cases and get the extra 0.1% of SQ you'd need to put significantly more money into DAC and get very marginal improvements if any any other than placebo... Vast majority of budget modern receivers can do DAC on par with most expensive external DACs

You have no idea of my technical ability, I wouldnt be so presumptuous.
Do ground loop issues affect optical SPDIF?
I can show the same effect with that as well.

Care to answer my points from my previous post and this one instead of glossing over them with your own agenda?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It depends what speakers you have already have.

Would Revel Salon2, KEF Reference, Linkwitz Orion, or Philharmonic 3 qualify?

I can't tell any difference between my Denon $2,000 BD players and my Panasonic BD players.

But perhaps I just don't have golden ears that some people are blessed with.

 

[Impelled]

Would Revel Salon2, KEF Reference, Linkwitz Orion, or Philharmonic 3 qualify?

I can't tell any difference between my Denon $2,000 BD players and my Panasonic BD players.

But perhaps I just don't have golden ears that some people are blessed with.

Fortunately I am blessed with such hearing, but you dont need to be this blessed to appreciate the difference.
I'm sorry if you cant tell.

Have you done any testing to see if you can tell the difference when jitter is reduced?