2. digital
  3. 169625-164631

How to get into high end digital? (Feeding a DAC)

I am looking primarily at the Schitt Yggdrasil or the Topping D90.
  • How does one feed those?
  • I am assuming any sort of CD transport would output the bit stream?
  • or… they get saved to file and played from some media player into the DACs.

Some example of what is commonly done would be great.

The system currently consists of:
  • TT —> Audio Research PH2
  • An old Nakamichi 5 disk CD player
  • TV
  • Audible Illusions line stage (New tunes on the way, but it still sound OK to me with the old tube in it)
  • Prima Luna (with GoldenLion and TS KT-120 one the way… and I might I’ll get the VTL mono blocks 100w/ch serviced)
  • Vandy 2C and Vandy sub

I also have a Home Theatre pre, which is Roon capable, on the way… So that maybe does some of this for me as well? 

But to be totally honest, the digital side is a bit of mystery to me.
I have always thought we plug in a CD player and the signal comes out. (Maybe with some nuance in DACs, clock jitter, and filtering to separate the higher end from the lower end products.)
128x128holmz

Showing 6 responses by jasonbourne52

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jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
@pindac : a coax digital cable should be no less than 1.5 meters in length to avoid reflections.
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
You can use your Nakamichi's coax digital output into the DAC via a Monoprice digital cable. Any CD/DVD player can serve as a transport. No need to spend big bucks! They all output the same data stream! Jitter is a non-issue with modern DACs. No need for a separate - and expensive - clock! Jitter in even cheap CD/DVD players is inaudible. This was a problem solved decades ago! Don't believe the pundits saying that spending ever more on a transport gives "better" sound quality. Not true! Digital is NOT like Analog! The same thing applies to cables. Cheap here works just as well as expensive. A $10 Monoprice digital cable is indistinguishable from a three or four figure cable - regardless of what the "golden ears" crowd claims. 
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
I will get a lot of flak for my post! But hey, those are the facts of life kids! 
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
Why Schiit or Topping? For less than $300 you can buy a Khadas 2 Tone Pro Dac that measures and sounds as good as any four-figure DAC! I own the earlier model, the KTB.
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
@henry53: parts costs to build DACs are are in the hundreds at most! Four-figure  and up DACs are high-profit items! Don't forget these companies are into it to make money!
jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 
A $500 Cambridge CXC transport + a $300 Khadas DAC is a formidable combination!
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