One other thing, the OP had posted a specific question. Derailing the discussion is bad form. Stay on topic.
dac and streamer or seperates
Want to spend about 5k
System right now is a Krell S-300 love it!
B&W 804's love them too
Well treated medium sized room.
but I'm using the built in streamer and dac.
I would like to take my streaming to the next level.
At 5k would you go separate DAC and Separate Streamer or all in one?
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@mgrif104 You write:
This is where it doesn't make sense to me. If a DAC receives the exact same digital data from two different sources, then why would it then result in a different analog signal?
Sadly I'll probably never get the chance to make the comparison you're suggesting. Hawaii Island a backwater. There are no audio shops here, let alone audio repair techs. It's very rural. Think Northern Idaho 10 miles from the Canadian boarder. We're as close to the 3rd World you can get and still be in one of the 50 states. |
You might get a better understanding by reading about what one DAC manufacturer did to try to improve the analog output. This is a website for the distributor for Holo DACs. You want to scroll all the way down, past the prices and read the section titled: Some noted features: DAC Design Used to Improve Digital to Analog Conversion Perhaps I’m overly generalizing, but it is also very important for the source to have a very stable clock. This is where the better Aurender and other high end brands excel. For those that can afford it, very accurate external clocks and both source and DAC clock inputs theoretically provide the best environment for digital to analog conversion. I2s communication protocol provides another theoretically great way to put a system together. If your source has a very good clock, I2s can pass the clock to the DAC and provide much the same benefit as the external clock, but unfortunately, many I2s implementations don’t allow for a clock signal to pass on I2s. PS Audio would be a glaring example of this. Paul (PS Audio Owner, engineer and chief marketeer) relentlessly pushes I2s, but doesn’t design equipment that allows for the clock to pass from source to DAC.
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An option is a used Bricasti M3 with built-in renderer. The brand’s products are more obsolete resistant than others. It will require a separate server to run Roon in order to stream. That means there is the cost of Roon plus an inexpensive server, like $1000+. The advantage is the savings on the streamer. The built in renderer sounds good. I hate to be one those buy-what-I-bought, but I do think the built in renderer offers a really good value and certainly doesn’t prevent future upgrades. I have tried my iMac/audirvana as a server. Even through the network input of my M3, it sounds awful. |
@vonhelmholtz I read through the link you sent. It speaks about clocking at both the source and at the target. I have to say I'm mystified as to why clocking at the source is an issue. Data being transmitted from one device to another is broken up into packets which are reassembled at the target. That's how I can copy a data file from a PC in California and send it 2500 miles to a machine I have in Hawaii. Those data packets have passed through more than a dozen routers, each router having physical connectors, wire and fiber cables of unknown nature, as well as the data bits being converted from electrical signals to light, etc. And yet in audio, people seem to obsess over a single 3 foot length of USB cable. |
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