Looking for DAC to use with vintage system
- Thread starter sagamore
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Linehand
Active Member
You should- apparently an oversimplification can be a difficult thing to grasp. Maybe you can get a brown shirt for your signature as well.
Final_Baton
Well-Known Member
To the OP : for me it was well worth it. I only spent $300 for my DAC and an external linear power supply, and it was quite a big improvement versus pluging my PC directly in my integrated via the PC's 3.5mm jack. Noise floor got really lower and everything sounded less grainy immediatly.
And I don't even have a Hi-Fi setup : mine is instead mid-Fi (albeit a good mid-Fi one). Yet the upgrade in soundquality of my digital files, when going from PC direct to an external DAC, was big.
Of course, you don't come from the same place as I : you stream from an Airport express and I from a PC. If I remember correctly, the DAC in Airport express is decent for a lower tier DAC. Sound from my pc was terrible
And I don't even have a Hi-Fi setup : mine is instead mid-Fi (albeit a good mid-Fi one). Yet the upgrade in soundquality of my digital files, when going from PC direct to an external DAC, was big.
Of course, you don't come from the same place as I : you stream from an Airport express and I from a PC. If I remember correctly, the DAC in Airport express is decent for a lower tier DAC. Sound from my pc was terrible
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snarfie
New Member
Topping D10 highres DAC - NAD C370 - Technics SE-9021 SU-9011 - IMF Compact II - B&W DM602 - Allen&Heath Xone 4D - AKAI APC40 - Yamaha MG102c. The Technics are feeding the B&W's (Bi-wiring) they are used as subwoofers (since roomcorrection i barely use them). The Topping (did make the sound <10% better) is excelent but the largest difference (>70%) is the used Room correction. I use Mathaudio Room EQ in combination with Foobar2000 (both freeware incombination) a real major difference. Have a look at my correction grey line is found resonance white line is correction used. Instead of buying cables, DAC's new amplifiers etc etc i would suggest first have a look/measurment at your room accoustics
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LLRuss
Active Member
Maybe I have the right thread here... I have a Yamaha CR-1040, Dell Pc, ADS speakers and stream with RCA to Spotify (no DAC). Acoustic songs sound fantastic. I play rock or other band covers, and the music sux compared to the acoustic downloads. It literally is radio quality vs true stereo. I swapped out amps, swapped out speakers, it is not the equipment. So, if I purchased a Topping D30 or 50 (example) will this improve matters? I welcome your comments as I have been all over AK looking for a solution.
Is this Spotify premium? The problem with Spotify on Windows is Spotify itself. The app doesn't use the most direct path to audio hardware which causes some quality loss. You need to at least set your sound card to 44.1kHz sampling rate in its settings, then disable volume normalization in Spotify settings and select the best quality there. You should listen with Spotify volume slider at max, same goes for the Windows system volume. And this still doesn't address the main issue I mentioned. I found that routing Spotify through JRiver's WDM driver helps a lot, JRiver isn't free but you can try it for 1 month. A separate DAC would likely be an improvement but the equal problem is the Windows Spotify app. Instead of a DAC you might want to get a Chromecast Audio streamer, it has its own DAC which is going to be better than your PC sound card and free of the issues I mentioned. One limitation you'll need to start playing from a mobile device, after that you can control playback from the PC. Another caveat it doesn't support gapless playback which can be an issue if you listen to a lot of Pink Floyd or classical music .
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LLRuss
Active Member
Thank you gvl. Did sign up for free trial JVRiver. I did try to link with Spotify but not fully there yet. I did her some “fluttering” as it tried to come in and the volume did work. I dunno. May do the chromecast audio from iPad. Bummed but will figure out. Shouldn’t be this difficult but you have me thinking.
The general steps are like this:
1. Enable the WDM Driver in JRiver settings - it installs as a sound device in Windows something like "JRiver Media Center ..."
2. Set it as the default device
3. Go to its Properties/Advanced tab, set default format to 16 bit 44100 Hz, on the Levels tab set to 100
4. In JRiver set the Audio Device to your actual audio hardware - something like AudioCardName [WASAPI], in Device Settings select "Open device for exclusive access" and "Maximize volume during playpack".
Now when you try to play in Spotify it will play through the JRiver WDM driver as it is the default sound device, the digital bits will then be rerouted through JRiver out to your PC sound card with minimal losses.
1. Enable the WDM Driver in JRiver settings - it installs as a sound device in Windows something like "JRiver Media Center ..."
2. Set it as the default device
3. Go to its Properties/Advanced tab, set default format to 16 bit 44100 Hz, on the Levels tab set to 100
4. In JRiver set the Audio Device to your actual audio hardware - something like AudioCardName [WASAPI], in Device Settings select "Open device for exclusive access" and "Maximize volume during playpack".
Now when you try to play in Spotify it will play through the JRiver WDM driver as it is the default sound device, the digital bits will then be rerouted through JRiver out to your PC sound card with minimal losses.
No need to remove, you can change the default in the Playback Devices:
Then from Properties you can access the format/sample rate:
Check WDM driver in JRiver Options under General, just type WDM in the search field in options it will show up.
LLRuss
Active Member
Didn’t show up
It should be under General/Features, last checkbox in version 23.
Also see this: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WDM_Driver
LLRuss
Active Member
HA! Found it as you described. It is checked off. Also now found in Windows and selected as Sound/Output Device. Will play later.
LLRuss
Active Member
Hmmm.... No audio but from the top graphics, the music is streaming.
