One DAC to Rule it All


Sorry for the "click-bait" headline. The digital side of my system is an Auralic G1 sending to an OKTO DAC8 Stereo. I like the sound a lot, but I also use a DBX Venu360 digital crossover system to split the signal to my mains and subs. The DBX gets an analog signal from my preamp (Benchmark HP4), but to do its function the DBX unit converts to digital, then back to analog at 96Khz. My question is, since the DBX unit has the capability to receive a digital signal (AES/EBU), would it be better to use just one DAC (DBX) to do it all, or stick with the double converting and keep the OKTO in the system?

koestner

Showing 1 response by davetheoilguy

From my medium technical understanding, the main concern with digital replay is jitter, which is largely a function of timing, followed distantly by sample rates.

A large culprit in jitter is a mismatch or misfit in the clock or something effecting timing, from hardware limitations to design issues to noise from various power sources.

Every truly resolving system I’ve heard had separate, but matched, streamer and ;DAC in a different box with an external or otherwise isolated clock.

Nagra, Lumin, Esoteric would be what I’d be looking at, probably Esoteric for all components.