Anyone using a DAC on their computer

[Omeletpants]

to bypass the internal headphone port?

 

[Crystallas]

Not sure what you mean. :thinking: Every computer has a DAC for output on standard jacks. You don't use a DAC for digital out.

Do you mean a post-proccessor?

 

[Omeletpants]

It's an external card that allows you to bypass the computer internal headphone jack

http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-D1

I wanted to know if bypassing the internal mic input would improve sound quality. All the reviews say it will but there is tons of snake oil in the audiophile industry. I ordered on and I'll see for myself and can return if I don't like.

25 years ago, I was rally into audio equipment and invested a lot of money into high end cassette decks, turntables and first gen cd players plus high end car systems. Back then Dolby was the think but that was garbage. I got fed up with all the min-maxing of equipment to gain marginal improvements and just used very average car and home equipment.

But now I have started investing in much better headphones for my home and iPhone and am only using 320 MP3 (even though that is considered very average). My car has a decent music system so I'm starting to get back into it a bit.

You go to these site and there are all kinds of opinions and reviews. But it's all subjective. So you never know what is real and what is snake oil

 

[Crystallas]

Oh yeah, external sound. Yeah, they're good options. Not as good as upgraded internal, because internal has better latency. But if you had to buy both a card and an amp, and you compared the price to an all in one USB unit like Audioengine provides(and no, not snake oil, it's a good solution), the price is going to be better for the all-in-one.


This is all for output. I know my gear pretty well, but I'm better at inputs when it comes to gem hardware -- type of hardware. For instance, I'm using a Lynx AES16e w/ an ADAT system. Maybe that's jibberish to you, but it's a studio-grade card for recording. I was into audio engineering and ran my own music restoration/remaster and recording business a while back. And because I'm in business for myself now, I'll still take on projects to restore and convert different media on the side.

Anyways, once you reach the max output of the digital file, everything is up to the hardware. Part of the beauty that comes with digital audio. So once you have a card capable of the output, the rest of the ear candy is all within the amplifier and possibly an EQ. So really, not a whole lot should have changed from when you were into high end audio 25 years ago. The only difference is the source. If you had that equipment sitting somewhere, you could set it up, and just connect the computer to the preamp. Although I would make sure you're within impedance before splitting a 3.5mm/TRS straight into an amp.

 

[Omeletpants]

Good, so now Im encouraged and we will see when the box arrives if I can tell the difference.

People dont remember how bad sound quality was before the CD around 1986. The hissing and click and pops and distortion. Even guys that spent 20k still had garbage compared to systems under 1k now. And noise reduction was horrible. Yes, Dolby would remove the hiss but at a cost of tons of sound and all the headroom. I had something called THX ( i believe) and that had it's own issues

Still there is no perfect sound. I continually still make EQ adjustments from track to track. I have stuff at 128kb that sounds better than one of my favorite CDs. Now I have a headache

 

[Omeletpants]

Here is a little present for you

[video=youtube;Tzsf4UiPhMY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzsf4UiPhMY[/video]

 

[Crystallas]

Hearing and preferences change over a short span of time, so sound is always going to be subjective.

 

[Omeletpants]

Just installed the Audiengine D1 and it's a huge improvement over the stock internal Mic port. Lots more headroom and clarity. Bass is tighter. For me worth the 169 bucks

 

[botfly10]

I use one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E16812191020&gclid=CNyR_tXGnrkCFeZxQgod8wQArw

Mostly cause I think my laptop does not supply enough power to my headphone jack, er maybe card, and it sounds bad. So I got that and its a huge improvement but its usb and applies some audio processing, so maybe a no-no for audiophiles.

 

[botfly10]

Ommy, I cannot believe you dont have a tube amp and a turntable if youre that into sound...

 

[Crystallas]

Ommy, I cannot believe you dont have a tube amp and a turntable if youre that into sound...

LOL, a joke. But true. Valve state and pre-loudness war vinyls > CDs.

 

[botfly10]

I wasnt kidding!

Kinda weird to spend all that money and then listen to mp3s and youtube. Ommy, at least look into FLAC and VOGG and whatnot.

 

[Crystallas]

If anyone is interested in a good, easy explanation to why some CDs sound better than vinyls, and why most vinyls sound better than CDs(as well as why many SACD still sound inferior), look into Alan Parson's documentary on audio mixing.

 

[Omeletpants]

I wasnt kidding!

Kinda weird to spend all that money and then listen to mp3s and youtube. Ommy, at least look into FLAC and VOGG and whatnot.

75% of my collection will never be available on FLAC. They are live performances only found on YouTube. Turntables were wildly overrated. I have to have music that is portable between my phone, omputer and car.

 

[botfly10]

The more you improve your sound gear, the worse mp3's will sound. Just sayin.

Check this site out Ommy:

http://etree.org/

Welcome to etree.org, the award-winning leader in lossless digital audio distribution on the Internet! We are a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format.