Any insight with the Berkeley Alpha DAC ..??

Drubin - I dont like to comment on the performance of other companies products on the forums, so I will send you an email.

The Bryston DAC unfortunately uses one of the lesser TI chips, not one of the good ones. However, I am actually in talks with Bryston about them designing my OEM USB module into their DAC, so this could improve significantly. There are several other manufacturers already designing the module into their products and you will see some of these debut at RMAF in October.

The Berkeley DAC is evidently designed by the Pacific Microsonics team that designed the excellent D/A modules in the past. I'm sure that the D/A module is a good one, however I believe this is their first "system" product. Have not heard one yet.

Steve N.

Thanks Steve. I look forward to seeing those products at RMAF. I assume you'll provide pointers to brands and room as the date approaches?

Steve,

Thanks for your response to my question. I haven't been back to this thread for a few days, but if your still around maybe you can clarify something for me.

You said:

There is no direct S/PDIF from a computer.

I take that to mean that you cannot extract digital information from a hard drive in S/PDIF format - it is first extracted in a different digital format and then converted to S/PDIF. My question is, where does that conversion take place and does it require a sound card? If you are saying that the conversion to S/PDIF must occur inside the computer, with the assistance of a sound card, then what does a USB DAC do that is different from a normal DAC? I was under the impression that a USB DAC converts the computer's digital format to S/PDIF as well as convert S/PDIF to analog, but I'm not really sure. Even if my impression is correct, maybe the sound card "sets up" the conversion to S/PDIF by performing some necessary preliminaries, like clocking.

I want to get the basic steps straight before tackling the details of implementation.

Update to my last post. Just read some other computer audio threads that suggest that the designation "USB DAC" refers to the way digital information moves from the computer to an external DAC, not any extra conversion that takes place in the DAC. Does that mean that the conversion to S/PDIF must take place inside the computer or could the computer's digital information be transported outside the computer in a format other than S/PDIF and then converted? Hope the other readers of this thread will excuse these plodding questions, but there's very little information available that spells out the basics in a clear, step-by-step way.

Hello Steve,

Sorry, two questions, can I use one EMM labs DAC2 , that have USB input, directly from the USB output of my Mac? and second if I want 24/192 what I need Thanks in advance