How to get into high end digital? (Feeding a DAC)

I think Hans provides a ton of good, basic, information in a user-friendly format (unlike here).  I'm also not terribly interested in his specific product suggestions.  The goal is for the OP to triage and make his own (her own? who knows).


I cannot, of course, comment on objections that you don’t specify, but if some audiophiles get unhappy with someone it typically says to me "he must be on to something"


And as one who has worked in various aspects of digital sound, video and synchronization, on and off, directly and indirectly for 35 years, i feel comfortable with my opinion. This extends from high end product and contract design to my real work at places like leading research labs, plus SMPTE, MPEG, and others.  I mean, we're just looking to demystify the basics.

Moreover, I’ve spent enough time to tune in my own system, using modestly price stuff and get impressive results against stuff costing 5-10X. Bear in mind my goal is not just the sound, its to learn where and how i might be able to make a jump in price/performance and/or simplify this admittedly befuddling topic.

So i will double don on him giving a great overview to new players in digital about what is what, what terms of art mean, how they go together, and what he feels makes a difference.


I cant speak for the areas you think he has been in error, but i know I’ve made mistakes. I presume you have too. As Charlie Brown quipped when Lucy Van Pelt noted that we learn from our mistakes: "that must make me the smartest person in the whole world"

I really don't like having to deal with overly strong, even if they have merit, comments that are not backed up by enough facts to know the difference. Let's be measured and cite our sources.


G

It looks like most of the sane people are here in digital:-) Keep it up jasonbourne and sensesundertime. It is nice to hear the voice of sanity.

The nice thing about digital information is that it is very hard to corrupt. Just look at the difference between analog and digital cell phones. It is either a zero or a one. Computers are blind to everything else. You can corrupt digital information on purpose with compression or a reduction in sampling rates. The only thing a cable can do is limit bandwidth but it is so easy to make a cable with acceptable bandwidth it is hard to imagine that any cable sold for digital use would do that to the extent it would corrupt a 24/192 signal. 

Our ears are very sensitive but they are terrible measuring devices. There is no way they can be calibrated. The other interesting characteristic of our hearing physiology is you can easily remember what you heard but you can remember how it sounded. You can intentionally characterize what you heard such as noting that the bass sounded great. In real time you can relate the sound to previous exposures. The bass sounds better today than the last concert I went too. Try to recall how something sounded without thinking in words. You can't. Thinking you can is like telling us you can fly, without a flying device. Measurements do not cover every eventuality but it is the best we have for quantifying the performance of an audio system. Relying on what any human thinks something sounded like is a very big mistake as you can witness when listening to the tweak gang ramble on. I am not saying that you can not improve the performance of your audio system by listening to it. You most certainly can. In real time you can easily identify weakness and with the appropriate measures most weakness can be overcome. You can remember what you heard but you can't remember what t sounded like.

Getting back to the OP, Get yourself a used Oppo or a new Reavon. Either unit will do everything you want. No need to take up more space than you have to. You are not going to get better DACs as stand alone units without spending more than you want. It does not sound like you want to get into computer audio but the Oppo has a USB input anyway.