Do I need a DAC?

[SofaKing]

I am hoping this is the correct place to pose these questions. I am extremely new to AK so am learning daily. I currently have a Sansui G-8000 that I listen to all my music through my older gen 2 I-pod connected to it via an adaptor cable that plugs into the I-pod and then plugs into the aux input via rca plugs.
I would like to be able to control my music via a remote control that would allow me to adjust the volume, playlist selection and track selection. I thought about doing this with a newer I-pod with blue tooth capabilities but I hear that doing so will reduce sound quality by approximately 10-15%. Not sure if that is true or not. I really do not want to sacrifice any sound quality to get the remote controls mentioned. Do I need a DAC to accomplish this or is there an easier way to do that?
Thanks in advance.

 

[gvl]

If you're happy with the sound quality from your iPod you can just add a remote-controlled pre-amp between it and the Sansui. As for bluetooth, if it is only used for controlling the iPod remotely I doubt there will be any quality loss as long as your iPod remains connected to the amp directly with cables, but if you somehow plan to stream audio wirelessly over bluetooth then yes, there will be quality loss.

 

[RichPA]

A DAC by itself will not accomplish your goals, except maybe remote volume control. It would not provide remote control of the iPod.

 

[whoaru99]

Yeah, remote volume control is easy, not sure about ways.to remotely control an early iPod.

Here's about the most inexpensive remote volume add on I've come across (new, anyway).

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/produ...ntid=50-8394&gclid=CJ6Kj8rWqNECFQkyaQodRtoIuA

Could put it between the source and receiver, or in a tape monitor loop, or between pre out and and main in if so equipped.

 

[classic carl]

I am hoping this is the correct place to pose these questions. I am extremely new to AK so am learning daily. I currently have a Sansui G-8000 that I listen to all my music through my older gen 2 I-pod connected to it via an adaptor cable that plugs into the I-pod and then plugs into the aux input via rca plugs.
I would like to be able to control my music via a remote control that would allow me to adjust the volume, playlist selection and track selection. I thought about doing this with a newer I-pod with blue tooth capabilities but I hear that doing so will reduce sound quality by approximately 10-15%. Not sure if that is true or not. I really do not want to sacrifice any sound quality to get the remote controls mentioned. Do I need a DAC to accomplish this or is there an easier way to do that?
Thanks in advance.

Do you have your music on a computer in addition to the I-pod? You could add a Squeezebox to your system and wirelessly send the music to it from the computer. The squeezebox remote or the computer can control the volume and what you want to hear. I use an external DAC with my Squeezebox, but the internal DAC could be used instead.

 

[SofaKing]

Do you have your music on a computer in addition to the I-pod? You could add a Squeezebox to your system and wirelessly send the music to it from the computer. The squeezebox remote or the computer can control the volume and what you want to hear. I use an external DAC with my Squeezebox, but the internal DAC could be used instead.

Hi Carl,
Thank you for your response. Yes, I have all my music on my home computer in my I-tunes library in addition to my I-pod. Do you notice any lose of sound quality using the wireless Squeezebox system? I have looked on line at the Logitech site and I do not seem to see the Squeezebox mentioned. There seems to be some listed on the Internet but it shows an MSRP price of $299 but sale prices of $499 or more. Not sure I understand that. One site mentioned the Squeezebox was replaced with Ultimate Ears, but I so far do not see much on that system.
Do you happen to know if the Squeezebox is still available?
Thanks again Carl.

 

[classic carl]

Logitech inexplicably stopped selling the Squeezebox line a couple of years ago to the dismay of many. Used ones are still out there though. I think there was one for sale on Barter Town recently. I don't know if it sold or not. You would need to become an AK subscriber to gain access to Barter Town, where we buy and sell gear and music.

I don't notice a drop off in sound quality as long as the music files are lossless.

 

[SofaKing]

Logitech inexplicably stopped selling the Squeezebox line a couple of years ago to the dismay of many. Used ones are still out there though. I think there was one for sale on Barter Town recently. I don't know if it sold or not. You would need to become an AK subscriber to gain access to Barter Town, where we buy and sell gear and music.

I don't notice a drop off in sound quality as long as the music files are lossless.

Well, now I get to prove how much of a newbi I am. What are lossless files. All my music is downloaded from I-tunes. I assume those are not lossless???
Thanks for your patience.

 

[SofaKing]

Logitech inexplicably stopped selling the Squeezebox line a couple of years ago to the dismay of many. Used ones are still out there though. I think there was one for sale on Barter Town recently. I don't know if it sold or not. You would need to become an AK subscriber to gain access to Barter Town, where we buy and sell gear and music.

I don't notice a drop off in sound quality as long as the music files are lossless.

Carl,
Would you happen to know if I got a new I-pod touch that has blue tooth capabilities and got a blue tooth transmitter that would hook-up to the rca cables on my Sansui, would I lose sound quality?

 

[classic carl]

Well, now I get to prove how much of a newbi I am. What are lossless files. All my music is downloaded from I-tunes. I assume those are not lossless???
Thanks for your patience.

I don't do I-tunes so I don't know for sure. My guess would be no, but I could be wrong. The vast majority of my music files are copied from CD, by selecting lossless during the ripping process instead of the other choices, the copy is an exact copy. There is no compression of the music. Obviously, lossless files are larger than lower bitrate files like MP3, WMA, etc. Some examples of lossless files are FLAC, ALAC, and WAV.

 

[classic carl]

Carl,
Would you happen to know if I got a new I-pod touch that has blue tooth capabilities and got a blue tooth transmitter that would hook-up to the rca cables on my Sansui, would I lose sound quality?

I have never used any blue tooth device, so I can't help there but others should respond sooner or later. My SQB works from a Logitech Web Control web page on my laptop that contains all of my music. The signal is sent to the SQB via wifi. I can control the music from there or from a remote. I believe there may be an app out there that will allow the use of a smart phone to control the music also.

 

[Yamaki]

I would say yes to your original question if 1) you wish to get the best SQ from your I-tunes files, 2) if you want to improve the quality of your media files by purchasing and playing some lossless files (FLAC, WAV, ALAC, DSD) and, 3) if you want to avoid loss of SQ or dropouts via wireless by going directly to your system with a hard wired solution.

Your laptop can be your music storage and server, a USB from that to your DAC will send those files for the digital to analog conversion, then the DAC sends the signals to your system via analog cable (RCA or XLR).

I tried a wireless solution but there was too much traffic on the network and wirelessly streaming the larger lossless files became problematic.

 

[pete_mac]

Carl,
Would you happen to know if I got a new I-pod touch that has blue tooth capabilities and got a blue tooth transmitter that would hook-up to the rca cables on my Sansui, would I lose sound quality?

The wireless aspect of the SBTouch is excellent. From a data transmission perspective, the SBT will receive whatever file you're sending from your PC or source perfectly.

Bluetooth, however, audibly degrades the music in my experience.

 

[EyeGee]

Perhaps this has already been intuited, but your I-Pod puts out an analog signal, so no need for a DAC. The files are stored on the I-Pod as MP3's (definitely NOT "lossless") which are then decoded by the I-Pod. If you wanted to feed your amp from your computer, you'd definitely notice a sonic quality upgrade by sending the music via the USB link to a DAC, and then from the DAC to the amp with RCA cables. There are many freeware programs that will convert your Apple tunes MP3's to a lossless format which can then be stored on your computer, assuming it has sufficient space on the hard drive, and fed to a DAC.

 

[SofaKing]

Thanks everyone for all the great feed-back. I have so much to learn, but I am enjoying the education.

 

[pete_mac]

If you wanted to feed your amp from your computer, you'd definitely notice a sonic quality upgrade by sending the music via the USB link to a DAC, and then from the DAC to the amp with RCA cables. There are many freeware programs that will convert your Apple tunes MP3's to a lossless format which can then be stored on your computer, assuming it has sufficient space on the hard drive, and fed to a DAC.

The PC/DAC may yield a performance upgrade, but converting MP3s to a lossless format will achieve nothing other than taking up more storage space. You can't restore lost fidelity in this way.

 

[uofmtiger]

It is hard to say without knowing what type of iPod you have. If you have a Touch, you can use the Remote app to control iTunes running on a computer and send the signal to an Airport Express (or other Airplay device). The Airport Express is lossless for 16/44.1, has its own DAC, but you can also use the digital optical output to feed a separate DAC, if you deem it necessary. The iPod Touch could also simply Airplay music that is being played on it to an Airport Express.

 

[SofaKing]

It is hard to say without knowing what type of iPod you have. If you have a Touch, you can use the Remote app to control iTunes running on a computer and send the signal to an Airport Express (or other Airplay device). The Airport Express is lossless for 16/44.1, has its own DAC, but you can also use the digital optical output to feed a separate DAC, if you deem it necessary. The iPod Touch could also simply Airplay music that is being played on it to an Airport Express.

Thanks for that insight. In your opinion, will a person lose approximately 10-15 % sound quality by transmitting via any wireless system?

 

[pete_mac]

Perhaps this has already been intuited, but your I-Pod puts out an analog signal, so no need for a DAC. The files are stored on the I-Pod as MP3's (definitely NOT "lossless") which are then decoded by the I-Pod. If you wanted to feed your amp from your computer, you'd definitely notice a sonic quality upgrade by sending the music via the USB link to a DAC, and then from the DAC to the amp with RCA cables. There are many freeware programs that will convert your Apple tunes MP3's to a lossless format which can then be stored on your computer, assuming it has sufficient space on the hard drive, and fed to a DAC.

Thanks for that insight. In your opinion, will a person lose approximately 10-15 % sound quality by transmitting via any wireless system?

No, you will only lose quality via Bluetooth.

The wireless transmission used by streamers which communicate with your PC and home network is bit-perfect (ie. whatever file exists on your PC will be transmitted perfectly to your streamer).

If you are transmitting MP3s rather than lossless files via a network, the original files will determine the quality of the sound, not the wireless transmission process.

I wirelessly transmit a variety of 320kbps MP3, FLAC, WAV and 24bit/96kHz files from my PC to the Squeezebox Touch (and onto a separate DAC) via my home network and there is no degradation of the files.

 

[uofmtiger]

Thanks for that insight. In your opinion, will a person lose approximately 10-15 % sound quality by transmitting via any wireless system?

As mentioned above, Bluetooth is currently lossy ( might not be in the future), but the tech that uses wifi is usually losslessly transmitted. The Airport Express maxes out at 16/44.1, so it does compress high res files on the fly.

I don't know where the "10-15 percent" information cam from. I think the difference in SQ between lossless compression and Bluetooth compression is less than 10 percent.