Are most DAC's compatible w computers?

In my experience - and I am a Mac guy, not a Windows guy - it will work.

But this is also a bit like saying cables are cables and tubes are tubes. Meaning that while it will work, it is probably not the best way to get where you want to go.

There are many posts in PC Audio on the subject and also on the Asylum. To summarize, the consensus seems to be:

The computer environment, with its switching power supplies, disks, RAM etc is a nasty environment. Getting the signal out of the box before processing it is universally seen as highly desirable.

There are a number of ways to do this:

- USB out via something like Waveterminal or directly to the DAC is a universally acclaimed solution that seems to work very well for everyone regardless of operating system.

- SLIM (slimdevices.com) can be connected via either WiFi or ethernet, have a DAC built in and also offer SPDIF out

- iTunes/Air Express solutions are working for some where line of sight is practical

In general the consensus is that a wired distribution solution is preferrable to a wireless one

SPDIF is often as big a problem as anything in the chain - for this reason Mac offers optical (Toslink) outs - of course you can find ample contention about the Toslink sound - but not about the Toslink signal....

BTW while much is made of the two way nature of USB, I can't find anything in the technical descriptions that supports the theory that USB does anything about jitter - the two way function is its device communication and control protocol - take a look at wikipedia.com

There is no doubt that the way you rip is critical. Lossless or no compression and error correction are the keys - format preferences vary but Apple Lossless (iTunes) and .wav are the preferred audiophile formats. EAC and iTunes seem to be the top choices.

Jitter is not a problem in ripped material. Jitter is an artifact of the electro-optical-mechanical process called playing the CD - a by product of trying to read data from an imperfectly reflective spinning disc at ever changing speeds in real time with a motor. In contrast all a computer has to do is retrieve relatively small chunks of data relatively slowly.

The fact that they are still having "jitter-like" problems seems to be why a lot of people are starting to think that SPDIF is the weakest link in the chain. This is the appeal of the USB direct to DAC solution.

Finally there not much question as to whether you will more readily achieve a tube sound at the DAC or the preamp - consensus is that the preamp is a better and potentially less expensive place to do this. And how often is something better and cheaper...

That said, you might want to check out the much awaited Scott Nixon TubeDac with USB input due out any week now. If what you want is audio from a hard drive this is probably a better long term investment than the Cal.

Achieving excellent results from a hard drive source requires paying attention to all the usual things - power, cables, placement, room tuning etc.

You will find 100% consensus that properly executed this is an extraordinarily cost effective way to get great playback. Doing this right is equivalent to a major component upgrade.

And it is the only way to manage a large library... simply fabulous from that perspective, SLIM and iTunes are the leaders in that category

Hope this helps

I am using a G4 laptop out to a Waveterminal 24 ($159) and the Waveterminal directly into my integrated amp. The sound through the Waveterminal is at least as good the sound of my MAC changer (maybe a little better). I am trying to decide between the Benchmark DAC 1 and the Apogee USB DAC -- as a further improvement in sound. Any thoughts between these two DAC's? Using the Apogee means I don't need the Waveterminal, but the Benchmark has also received so much acclaim.

I just tried using my pc with an external d/a. For the cost of a d/a along with the crummy quality of the pc, you are much better off just buying a decent cd player.
To get good sound out of a pc will cost a bundle. You need quality software for burning, more internal dampening, huge hard drives and.....I tried to bypass the sound card with a usb run dac and was totally disappointed with the quality.

BTW while much is made of the two way nature of USB,
I can't find anything in the technical descriptions that supports the theory
that USB does anything about jitter - the two way function is its device
communication and control protocol - take a look at wikipedia.com

Quite correct, USB does absolutely nothing about jitter in and of itself. It
must be the device that is connected via USB that is built do take advantage
of the bi-directional nature of USB that would do something about it. Take a
look at the information provided by Gordon Rankin over at Wavelength on the
subject here

To get good sound out of a pc will cost a bundle. You need quality
software for burning, more internal dampening, huge hard drives and.....I
tried to bypass the sound card with a usb run dac and was totally
disappointed with the quality.

I don't agree, and am quite curious why you couldn't get satisfactory sound
from your setup. Which USB DAC did you try Elevick? As far as the cost; Most
of us already have a capable PC or we wouldn't be posting here. It does not
take an extremely fast PC to stream music, nor does it require a whole bunch
of RAM. A Waveterminal is currently around $159 and will connect any USB
equipped PC to any DAC with either S/PDIF or Toslink inputs. The only other
investment would be in an external drive to store the larger files (a 250GB
Lacie drive is about $219) and most folk's entire collections would fit on that
single drive in Apple Lossless. Total investment is about $400. In
comparison to what folks on this site spend on front ends I'd say that is a
mighty small sum. Even if you add $1000 for the computer itself you are still
at the price of a nice front-end CD player or entry level turntable rig. Oh,
and iTunes is absolutely free and is excellent software for ripping and playing
your collection. Using this system through my Muse DAC the sound is
nothing short of superb, and I find no advantage to running playing a CD
through the same DAC - I am quite sure that an A/B/A comparison would
leave anyone stumped. I'd challenge anyone here to consistently identify one
from the other. As has already been said, the tremendous convenience of
having your entire music collection at your fingertips is priceless!

Perhaps this is getting off the topic, but all I want to accomplish is sending WAV or FLAC files from my computer to my Alesis ML9600 HD. I download a lot of digital soundboards and instead of burning them to a CD then playing or uploading them on the Alesis, I'd like to play (or transfer if possible) the files on my computer to the Alesis which will allow me to record them as 16, 20, or 24 bit and 44.1, 48. 88.2, or 96k (uploading from CD is 16/44.1).

My computer only has USB, SCSI, LAN, and Firewire connections. Can anyone give me some idea if what I want to do is possible or how I can go about it. Alternatively, I can transfer the lossless files to my Rio Karma which as analog outputs. I suppose I can hook these into the Alesis inputs and play the music on the Rio while it records on the Alesis. The sound on the Rio is pretty good, but would I have to worry about jitter?

Thanks