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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
travelinjack's avatar
travelinjack
187 posts
 
I would say abandon the CD player.  Rip everything to FLAC or get digital copies online of the albums you want.
Do you have an old laptop?  If so, use that as your music server.  Buy a large external hard drive and fill it with music.
The Topping D90 is fine.  It is a solid Delta Sigma DAC and doesn't come with the R2R baggage of the Schiit Yiggy.
I replaced all my CDs with DSD, FLAC, and ALAC files over the last few years.  I used my old work ThinkPad T430 to rip the CDs and now use it as my music server.  I send the music files by USB output to a now discontinued SMSL M8 DAC.  If I were shopping for DACs now the D90 would be on my short list.

One the laptop, in Windows 10, I have networked the drive.  I use Foobar2000 as my media player on the laptop and the Foobar2000 Controller app on my phone as a remote control.

The convenience of having all music so easily available to play anytime.  Browse the files using the controller app on my phone and play from anywhere in the house.
Post removed 
holmz's avatar
holmz OP
2,328 posts
 
The OP asked into HIGH END digital... Not your basic run of the mill digital.

I think I am the OP ;)


Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 5, USB Audio Digital Converter. Eat your heart out...

How's that for a USB isolator!

Sorry holmz, I had to

Exhausting...

I am not exhausted yet… (Thanks)

OK so it looks like the MUC send the audio out of the USB?
And would sit between a NUC and a DAC?
henry53's avatar
henry53
280 posts
 
Not really trying to be contentious however a cheap DAC sounds like a cheap DAC, a cheap CD player sounds like a cheap CD player, a cheap turntable sounds like a cheap turntable. Unfortunately some expensive ones do too? But not all. 
holmz's avatar
holmz OP
2,328 posts
 
Not really trying to be contentious however a cheap DAC sounds like a cheap DAC, a cheap CD player sounds like a cheap CD player, a cheap turntable sounds like a cheap turntable. Unfortunately some expensive ones do too? But not all.
OK then… which cheap ones sound expensive?

So far I have a list which includes:
  • Topping
  • Schitt Yggdrasil 
  • Khadas 2 Tone Pro Dac
  • Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 5
  • Gustard X26 Pro
But if I have to spend 20kilobucks, then I am pretty much out… and I’ll just use an iPad.
I have been hearing since the 80s that CDs/digital is God’s gift… but then 40 years on, it is stuff like, “Well how can a CD compare to a 5-10k$+ vinyl setup.” 

And then half my friends and workmates swear by Sonos, which I do not really see much benefit in… other than ease of setup.


doesn't come with the R2R baggage of the Schiit Yiggy.
And I thought that R2R sounded like a good solution?
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