2. digital
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DAC with AirTunes?

Can I improve my sound by adding an external DAC to my Airport Express/AirTunes->Arcam AVR300 connection or should I just stick with a direct digital connection to the AVR300? I'm using a Monster AirPort Express Stereo cable(toslink) now and thought about adding a lower priced used(Scott Nixon, Benchmark or Ack!) DAC into the mix. I'd go through the AVR300's analog inputs instead of a direct digital connection. I have some leftover .5 meter Kimber Silver Streak cables that I'd be using for my analog connection so all I'll need is the DAC.

Thanks for any input.
asahitoro

Showing 2 responses by edesilva

edesilva
768 posts
 
Don't think you are ever going to be able to use your Nano for a remote... Its a fine device for what it is but... it doesn't have a digital out; it doesn't have the capacity to store any significant amount of non-lossy compressed music; it doesn't have bluetooth; and, even if it had bluetooth, bluetooth doesn't have the over the air capacity to do a digital audio PCM stream.

If you want an iPod interface, maybe the Squeezebox is for you. Gives you a remote and the Squeezebox interface is sort of like the control on the iPods. You can use the digital output of the squeezebox and run that into a standalone DAC for pretty good quality playback. Plus, with a bit of messing around, you can get the slimserver software that the squeezebox uses to "sync" with your iTunes music library, so you are only modding the library with one program....
edesilva
768 posts
 
BT runs in the same band as microwave ovens, 2.4 GHz cordless phones, and Wi-Fi. So, even if you could get PCM digital out of a dock, the bandwidth limits of BT are going to kill you.

And, I suspect Pabelson is right--the dock is not going to give you a digital-to-digital path over the air. AE with a laptop is a much better solution. Or a Squeezebox. Stick with Apple Lossless for real stereo use and let the Nano be what it was intended--a device for purely portable use, not critical listening...
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