2. digital
  3. 1139715855

Will computer to DAC replace transports and cdp's?

From my limited reading it seems that a cd burned to a hard drive will be a bit for bit copy because of the software programs used to rip music files. A transport has to get it right the first time and feed the info to a dac. Wavelength audio has some interesting articles about computer based systems and have made a strong statement that a transport will never be able to compete with a hard drive>dac combo.

Anybody care to share their thoughts?
kublakhan
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Pardales - no this is not a good thing. The power is coming from the computer.

Power the Converter from battery or at least it's own power supply and you will realize a big improvement.
pardales
652 posts
 
Thanks, Audioengr. The U24 has no other power supply options.

It would seem to me that the future lies in USB DAC's, so that extra step of conversion can be skipped altogether. What do yo think?
mburnstein
60 posts
 
Steve, Can you make a I2Se unit with the Sonic Frontiers method od I2S connection as I have one of their Platinum 3.1 Sig DACS with I2Se interface. I know it is not compatable with the Muse Audio I2S interface
Thanks
mikechai5608
8 posts
 
Anyone mod their U24 to be powered by batteries instead?

I'm sure that will make a difference.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"Thanks, Audioengr. The U24 has no other power supply options."

If you open it up and cut the trace with +5V on it and inject your own 5V, then this will do the trick.

"It would seem to me that the future lies in USB DAC's, so that extra step of conversion can be skipped altogether. What do you think?"

Absolutely, although separates like USB to I2S and then I2S DAC input work just as well. USB DAC's, at least the good ones, use this technique. Skips the S/PDIF conversion and clock recovery. The USB DAC that I am designing is simply a USB to I2S converter and a DAC board in the same case. The DAC chips all need I2S or some variant anyway. You cannot skip that part. The best sound that I can offer is using I2S interfaces. 4 DAC's currently support it.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/Modder
More to discover