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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
ghdprentice
7,052 posts
 
I had a top of the line  Nakamichi CD player. I put it into my system last year for about 30 seconds, unplugged it, took it upstairs and threw it in the trash. Literally. I payed thousands for it. 
Bit streams in the digital end are as important as turntable /cartridge. The DAC roughly analogous to the Phonostage.

The Schiit Yggi is an excellent budget DAC. Don’t even consider something of lessor quality for your budget. Look to Aurender to find a good Streamer. You want to put as much money as you can into both. 
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Based on a lot of listening and testing with friends and by myself, i have found that getting the best source is more important than getting the best DAC.  Figure your budget and then you can find out which DAC and server play best together.  There are so many very good options for each that are 'affordable'.  The higher you get in a DAC (cost), the fewer compromises it should have.  that's not always the case, but it's a general starting point.  I also have found out that cost isn't the be all end all for DAC's.  Codex is still a GREAT option for an under 2k DAC.  It's actually pretty amazing, but most aren't even talking about it as it's an older DAC now, but Ayre Ariel at Ayre designed it and made it to be a DAC that would go against the 5k DAC's.  They actually cost Ayre a ton of money to make.

Then you have a ton of DAC's by solo shops. Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio is another solo shop and what a shop it is.  He is as smart digitally as anyone I have ever met and spoken to.  There are some others who folks discuss on the boards.   

holmz's avatar
holmz OP
2,328 posts
 
Find a local audiophile or dealer who has achieved "something" with digital and learn from them.

Good one…
  • There are no dealers near by.
  • The one that I am most familiar with (In SoCal) has the Merging+.
https://nadac.merging.com/product/merging-player

Hence I am here… and going slowly trying to come up with a sensible plan.
invalid
1,200 posts
 
Pure digital is totally accurate but not everyone's cup of tea. We are influenced by our past


Not true nothing in audio is totally accurate. Solid state has distortion also, it's just not very pleasant to the ears.


pedroeb
493 posts
 
I'm sure by now we all understand that "Digital is all zeros and ones".

As we were advised all those years ago, "oils ain't oils".

Getting those bits off the medium and into a perfect electrical stream without contamination is the real issue and it ain't necessarily that easy to achieve.

Converting an electrical signal to optical and then back to optical just adds additional complexity that doesn't seem to have any benefits. 
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