What's the Weak Link?

Pat Brody -- Tue, 09/02/2008 - 18:34

Started reading TAS a year ago... best audiophile mag I've found by far. I have a 'basic' system... plinius integrated (about two grand); arcam universal (about two grand); usher speakers (4k about 6 months ago), so/so cable and interconnects.. I recently loaded all my cds (800 or so - mostly rock) in to a high end vaio that I now use solely for music. Running itunes with all cd's ripped in apple lossless, I get a sound VERY close to the arcam when playing cds from either source (arcam universal vs. vaio laptop.) I can only afford to spend 1 to 2k at a time to upgrade the system... after reading the article in TAS 183 about homegrown music systems, I'm wondering if I should get an outboard DAC, how that would compare with the DAC in my vaio (which ran me about 3k); if the very cheap cable (ten bucks) running from the headphone output of my vaio to my plinius (just RCA connections) is the 'weak link'? I note a cable that runs out of the USB for $300 containing its own DAC... would that give me any sound improvement? Lastly, I'm shocked at how close my laptop comes to my Arcam in sound quality (when playing back lossless encoded files).... my wife actually picked the laptop over the arcam in an abx test... I have to think that all high end audio is headed in this direction... the convenience of not loading a separate CD every time is such that I will never go back to a stand alone CD player.... thanks/ any advice or direction is appreciated...

Steven Stone -- Sun, 09/07/2008 - 11:58

Trends audio makes a very nice USB DAC for around $150 called the DAC UD-10. It converts USB to AES/EBU, Toslink, or RCA SPDIF. as well as analog. It is compact and powered from your computer's USB.

It can be used in conjunction with a stand-alone DAC or by itself.

I think you will find it a useful first step that will improve your computer audio sound that you can augment later with the conventional full-size DAC of your choice.

Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications

Pat Brody -- Mon, 09/08/2008 - 15:04

Hi Steven-

Thanks for the reply.... what I'm really trying to figure out is having paid 3k or so for the sony vaio, is it likely that it's internal DAC is 'better' than a USB cable / DAC combo (one issue), and how do I tap in to the 'digital bit stream' from an ITunes file (i.e., if I'm using a DAC / Cable combo, how do I circumvent the internal DAC in my laptop so the ITunes file 'exports' as a digital vs an analog file)?

I'm fairly impressed with the sound quality that I'm getting from the lossless files, it's just hard for me to imagine that moving the analog information from the computer to my integrated amp on a ten dollar cable is giving me the best quality sound...

thanks again for your insight / looking forward to the next installment on this whole topic in TAS as well...

Pat

Pat Brody
patbrody [at] comcast [dot] net

Steven Stone -- Mon, 09/08/2008 - 17:52

The Trends device I recommended gets your USB digital out of your computer and allows you to hook up the digital stream to virtually any DAC on the market. You may also find that the Trends DAC is better than the Vaio's internal one.

For slightly over $100 you get a pretty useful little box that can increase your options and answer your questions about whether the internal DAC is any good.

Pat Brody -- Mon, 09/08/2008 - 18:28

Great, I'll start there... you may see a reply in several weeks with my assessment... I assume it goes without saying that stepping up to the benchmark DAC or similar is an even better option, so I will likely be trying that pretty quick as well.....

Pat Brody -- Sun, 12/07/2008 - 13:43

I picked up an entry level external DAC and hooked it up to a basic PC running iTunes, with a 'passport' 320 meg drive to store the itunes library. The external DAC sounds 10 times better than the PC's.

I'm impressed enough with the improvement in sound of even a basic external DAC that I'm planning on an immediate upgrade of the DAC, and I'm also researching NAS storage devices (to replace the PC.)

I think this kind of a configuration within several years will replace CD players... I no longer use my CD player, as the convenience, variety, etc... of iTunes is such that's it's now the only way I listen to music.

Thanks for the tip...

Tom Martin -- Sun, 12/07/2008 - 15:00

Pat -- you also may want to read this article from Benchmark:

http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/Computer_Audio_Playback_-_S...

It covers some of the issues with media players (e.g. iTunes). It isn't perfect and we are looking at how to develop something similar in TAS, but I think it might help with your setup.

CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC

Carl Espy (not verified) -- Tue, 01/06/2009 - 17:07

I recently began running a spare Dell desktop as a music server with iTunes. It feeds a Cambridge Audio DacMagic via USB and then into my system. I am listening and enjoying digital music now much more than before I began using the computer and the DAC.
The question I have is this: I only rip CDs now using the Apple Lossless format, but much of my music previously ripped into iTunes is in mpeg or AAC formats. iTunes provides an option to convert all that music to Apple Lossless, but can the resulting music file reproduce the same bit for bit reproduction as if it had originally been ripped from the CD in the Apple Lossless format? How could the "conversion" process reconstruct the file in a perfect lossless file?
Carl Espy
c [dot] espy [at] live [dot] com