DAC in player vs DAC in computer.

Do you know if anyone has tried a DTI between their DAC and computer. For those of you who never heard of a Digital Transmission Interface, it re-clocked the digits; and they raised the quality of almost whichever DAC they were used with.

They do the same thing. However, an external DAC that can be used with a computer can be much higher quality than any CD player. Soundcards or motherboard implementations of DACs are usually poor quality and suffer from the poor power quality in the computer. This is why it is best to get an external DAC that is independent of the computer.

Like the CD player, the most important part of this equation is the master clock. There is one or more in the CD player and there is one or more in the computer interface of the external DAC. This is actually more important than the DAC itself.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Hi all, noob here from Sacramento. I've seen a lot of USB, Toslimk Dac's. Is there such thing as a HDMI Dac? or what about newer USB 3.0, or won't make a diffrence
between 2.0 or 3.0 USB since it's just 1's and 0's

audioengr, if you started from digital out in a computer, could it compete with the best "stand alone CD players"; if you used the best DAC?

"audioengr, if you started from digital out in a computer, could it compete with the best "stand alone CD players"; if you used the best DAC?"

No way. No expensive DAC will fix this. In this case, the master clock is inside the computer. It's this clock that is critical. Need to get it out of the computer and into an external box with a good power source, like a USB converter or USB DAC. The clocks used in these also have lower jitter than anything used in a computer or soundcard.

Think of the master clock as the phonograph cartridge. If you dont have a good one, there is nothing you can do downstream for any amount of money that will repair the damage that it does to the signal. In the cartridge case, its an analog signal. In the digital case, its a digital signal.

Networked interfaces are another option, but these are mostly proprietary and have poor clocks IME (Sonos etc..). You can of course mod them to change to lower jitter clocks or put reclockers after them to improve the jitter performance.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio