In article , Wally
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:


Listened to on a Quad 67 the sound just got very vague and dull. (This
was using the Meridian DAC outboard from the Quad, so reading the same
data/errors in each case.) The Quad seems to try and 'hide' serious
losses by smoothing them over when the meridian seems to decide
"bugger it! I'd better let them hear this isn't right!" :-)

Vague and dull is more like what I get from the Schneider player.

It is therefore possible that this is due to smoothing over lost data.
However it may simply be that the frequency response is poor and is rolling
off the HF. Hard to say without some measurements, etc.


Pay yer money and take yer choice on which approach you'd prefer...

Given that I don't have a handy DAC with which to test my cheapie
player, I suspect it's more a case of paying my money and taking my
chance... :-)

:-) That does tend to be the way around - unless you can pursuade someone
to loan you a DAC on a 'try before buy' basis.


Afraid I can't really say. In normal use, my experience is that DACs
do not often make large differences once the system is essentially
decent.

That leaves me feeling that almost any external DAC is going to be an
improvement over the player's internal one. Which leads me to wonder if
something at the (very) cheap end of second hand would make a good
improvement.

I'm biassed, but my recommendation would be for an old meridian DAC as
these seem well engineered, and sound excellent to me. Other DACs may be
superb, though. Some makers do seem to engineer a specific 'sound' which
you may prefer.

I've noticed in my browsing that some are listed as doing 30-something
KHz, as well as 44.1 and 48, and assumed that some were designed to
handle different rates. I've been wondering if I should be looking for
something which will handle 48KHz as well as 44.1, as a future-proofing
thing, but I'm feeling now that 44.1 will be sufficient for a good while.

If you are going to play the sound from DVDs then 48kHz is required. Also
check that your DVD can be set to output S/PDIF, not just the 'bitstream'
for surround Dolby, etc. Older DACs can understand S/PDIF but not the
bitstream.

(BTW This is yet another multiple-use of a word as 'bitstream' has also
been used for something quite difference to its meaning in this context.)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html