DAC's...What exactly do they do?

Digital to Analog converters convert the digital signal to analog (fill the bucket with the amount of voltage represented by the digital number and then dump the bucket into the audio stream ;) ).

The only ones I have are built into the CDP, DVDP, Computer iPod etc.

mike
 
Keeps me from having to listen to my sucky soundcard and speakers.

Mine is a NuForce uDAC (USB only). Runs from my computer to a little Pioneer integrated I have here in the 'office'.

It was about $100 shipped.
 
I grabbed a Hotaudio DAC WOW USB DAC recently and I'm impressed! It plugs into an unused USB port and by-passes the onboard PC sound card. The improvement in sound quality over the onboard PC sound is such that my Akai and Harman Kardon CD players are now redundant. One very happy camper right here! :)
 
So they can be used with soundcards/home computers? Hmmmmmmm...
I've read that DAC's are also the darlings of the more modern hi-fi "Audiophile" set. I see that some DAC's can get very pricey!! So DAC's more or less fill in the digital waveform steps to simulate a true analog waveform? Am i close?
 
From what I gather, if you have a cdp or a dvd player, there's already a DAC in there. However, the quality of the conversion varies. There are stand alone DACs which supposedly do a better job, resulting in a better sound. Someone correct me if that's a bad answer.

Like TT's you can spend as much money as you want to get the "right" DAC for you.
 
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Anything digital that you have listened to has a DAC in it. Your soundcard is a DAC. Your CD player is a disc transport and DAC in one box. You can hook an outboard DAC to an old CD player if it has a optical or coax output, making that CD player into just a transport, and the new DAC will take the place of the older one in the player. You can run one from your computer to an audio system, in lieu of the DAC in the computer.

A lot of people are moving to music server systems, where all their music is converted to (or originally purchased as) files, sometimes very high resolution files. An outboard DAC then converts these files to analog...the music we listen to.
 
Okay. Got it. Not for me and my listening habits as i'm a staunch physical media type of music consumer. Thanks for the replies. :thmbsp:
 
This is why standard CD players as we know them are actually "integrated CD players," because they have two components (transport and DAC) in one. Like John said, with a lot of Cd player models you can bypass the internal DAC through the digital output socket.
 
So they can be used with soundcards/home computers? Hmmmmmmm...
I've read that DAC's are also the darlings of the more modern hi-fi "Audiophile" set. I see that some DAC's can get very pricey!! So DAC's more or less fill in the digital waveform steps to simulate a true analog waveform? Am i close?

Not even close :no: You're thinking of the CD reproducing a waveform like a stack of Lego's, but it ain't like that. The analog waveform is broken down (during the digital recording) into a bunch of 1's and 0's and it streams out at constant volume. If you're old enough to remember fax machines, it's like the sound you get when you dial a fax line by mistake.

Except I think CD's sample at 44kHz, so you may not even be able to hear it. Which is just as well, it's a square wave. If you could hear it you'd run away.

The DAC takes this mess and turns it into music. A single stream of 1's and 0's turns into two channels of sweet music.

My Yamaha receiver has an onboard DAC, so I use the optical out from my CD player instead of RCA cables, very clear sound.
 
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You can think of a DAC as a programmable power supply.

This power supply can adjust it's output current (which is translated into an output voltage) at a high, regular rate. This rate is 44100 times a second for CD audio. This is the sampling rate, or sampling frequency.

The input to the DAC are digital words that tell the DAC what output current to force. The number of amplitude steps available depends on the bit depth that the DAC is capable of. It is 16 bits for CD Audio. This allows a step size volts/(2^16). 2^16 = 65536 "steps" or quantization levels. If your system has a full-scale output of 2.0 volts AC RMS (sine), then the P-P voltage would be ~5.64 volts. 5.64(volts)/65536 = 86uV per "step". For higher bit depths, this step size can be reduced.
 
Do you have one?

No. I have two (not counting the built-in ones). ;)

How do you use it?

Mostly I use them to play music out of computers, but sometimes I also use them instead of the DACs built into various CD or CD/DVD players.

How much did you spend?

I think one was around $150, new (but now is $650), the other I think was about $250, used.

Here's an interesting little demo - http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cd5.htm
 
I use an external DAC on 2 of my 3 CD players. I paid $650 for the one in my main system, brand new, with a tube output. It makes my CDP sound very close to the sound of my turntables. The other one, I bought used for about $200 and it is definitely better than the internal DAC in the CDP that I'm using it with. My bedroom system CDP is using it's internal DAC and although it is the oldest of my CDP's, an external DAC isn't necessary with this one, mostly because I don't use it very often and I don't do any critical listening in the bedroom. It sounds very good by itself.
 
"Not for me and my listening habits as i'm a staunch physical media type of music consumer."

Well, you never know until you try! Find someone with a good system (good DAC, receiver and speakers) and give it a listen. You may be surprised!
 
A DAC is simply a digital analog converter.
It converts the digital signal to analog.
Digital is "one's and zero's" and can be found on -for instance- a CD.
Analog is sound as it naturally is.
So the DAC is very important!
If the DAC does a crappy job at converting the digital data to actual audio signal, the quality of the amplifier, cables or speakers will be completely lost.
You do not need a seperate DAC though and paying $650 for one isn't necessary at all.
Every computer soundcard, CD player, digital amplifier, mp3 player, ...etc. has a DAC built into it ... if you buy a crappy cheap soundcard for your PC ... the DAC is likely to be crappy and cheap ... but if you buy a nice external soundcard from say "edirol" or "m-audio" ... the DAC is likely to be of studio quality and perfect :)
Same goes for CD-players ... all CD players have little motors and little lasers, but the DAC is what matters most ... so an expensive CD-player will have a professional sounding DAC.
Hope this cleared things up for you.
 
Right. I was obviously asking about external DAC's. They convert long sequences of 0's and 1's into an audio stream or audio waveform. If you are happy with the internal DAC in your CD player(s), an external unit is redundant/unnecesssary. I don't and won't ever use my computer for extended music playback, only quick samples. So again, an external DAC would be unnecessary for my listening habits.

Based on the replies to this thread, that's my understanding of DAC's.
 
The only standalone DAC I have is a Valab Chameleon off of ebay from a guy in Taiwan. I use it mainly with Laptop via USB playing Flac files.

I highly recommend you try it...
 
OMG. This thread has answered SO MANY questions for me. Thank you, Libertycaps.


Now, someone start a thread about servers.
 
I have a MAudio Firewire 410 I got for 50 bucks I dump my MacBook sound into, but I mainly got it for the phantom power and mic jacks + midi for audio recording. It *may* sound better than my MacBooks internal sound card being isolated from the electrical noise created by CPU plus voltage fluctuations, etc, but I wouldn't put money on being able to ABX it from my Macbooks sound card, but it's there for other purposes so I use it, shrug.
 
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