Jim Lesurf wrote:

[snip]

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has an
optical output?

No, I have not found the need, so far, for any external DAC to go with my
Mac mini, the analogue output sounds most satisfactory to me. A snaglet with
the Mac is the the analogue and optical outputs both emanate from the same
3.5mm plug'ole so both cannot be connected simultaneously, unless someone
knows otherwise.

Would an external DAC get around a PC's inherent resampling.

Googling found this from a well known supplier :-

http://www.russandrews.com/product-F...B-DAC-4626.htm

[snip]


--
David Pitt
Snow Leopard - MessengerPro

"Jim Lesurf" wrote

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has an
optical output?

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very similar
to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the price. I've
used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very pleased with it.

David.

David Looser said...

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very similar
to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the price. I've
used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very pleased with it.

Is it this one?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34128

I've been looking at that as a cheap way of getting toslink output from
my laptop to a Minidisc, have you tried it in that mode?

--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

In article , David Pitt
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

[snip]

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has
an optical output?

No, I have not found the need, so far, for any external DAC to go with
my Mac mini, the analogue output sounds most satisfactory to me. A
snaglet with the Mac is the the analogue and optical outputs both
emanate from the same 3.5mm plug'ole so both cannot be connected
simultaneously, unless someone knows otherwise.

Same is true with my new laptop, but that doesn't bother me as I
just use an external DAC as I assume that will be better than the
analogue parts of the laptop!


Would an external DAC get around a PC's inherent resampling.

I've been able to get output from the standard soundcards that is without
resampling. But in each case only with the 'default' sample rate. I've now
tried three totally different 'PC' machines (with Ubuntu/Xubuntu) and
every case the default insists on playing all digital output with the same
sample rate, regardless of the rate of the source material.

Using the DACMagic solved that problem, but at the cost of having to use an
external add-on USB DAC of course! Plus I think that then limits me to 16
bits per sample, although I can't say that currently bothers me much!

Googling found this from a well known supplier :-

http://www.russandrews.com/product-F...B-DAC-4626.htm

Ahem Yes, I had known about that as was thinking of contacting Russ about
one. :-) But I was wondering if I was going to be 'first into the field'
again wrt using one with Linux.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article , David Looser
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has
an optical output?

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very
similar to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the
price. I've used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very
pleased with it.

Ah! Thanks. I was wondering if they did one. I just got a 'preview'
catalogue from them and had looked though it for that sort of thing with no
success.

Can you recall the part number? If not I'll just see if I can find it.

And does it automatically follow the source sampling rate?

And how does it indentify itself to the 'PC'? The DACMagic reports itself
as a specific 'USB Headphone Set' as that comes from the USB chip they use.

....and do you know if it works with Linux? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"UnsteadyKen" wrote in message
m...
David Looser said...

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very
similar
to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the price.
I've
used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very pleased with it.

Is it this one?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34128

That's the one.

I've been looking at that as a cheap way of getting toslink output from
my laptop to a Minidisc, have you tried it in that mode?

I haven't tried to connect to a Minidisc, but I see no reason why it
shouldn't work. I've mainly used it to feed audio from a laptop to an
optical input of a Denon surround-sound amplifier. Though I've also used
with a stand-alone DAC and also succesfully fed the optical output into the
optical input of a sound-card on another PC as an experiment.

David.

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , David Looser
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has
an optical output?

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very
similar to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the
price. I've used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very
pleased with it.

Ah! Thanks. I was wondering if they did one. I just got a 'preview'
catalogue from them and had looked though it for that sort of thing with
no
success.

Can you recall the part number? If not I'll just see if I can find it.

"Unsteady Ken" has posted the link.

And does it automatically follow the source sampling rate?

I understand that it does.

And how does it indentify itself to the 'PC'? The DACMagic reports itself
as a specific 'USB Headphone Set' as that comes from the USB chip they
use.

It identifies itself as "USB Audio Device"

...and do you know if it works with Linux? :-)

'Fraid not!

David.

On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:21:19 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

In article , David Looser
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote

Has anyone reading this tried, say, the 'Firestone' USB dac that has
an optical output?

There is a little USB DAC from Maplin which looks to me to be very
similar to the "Firestone" except that it only costs a fraction of the
price. I've used the Maplin DAC for some time and have been very
pleased with it.

Ah! Thanks. I was wondering if they did one. I just got a 'preview'
catalogue from them and had looked though it for that sort of thing with no
success.

Can you recall the part number? If not I'll just see if I can find it.

And does it automatically follow the source sampling rate?

And how does it indentify itself to the 'PC'? The DACMagic reports itself
as a specific 'USB Headphone Set' as that comes from the USB chip they use.

...and do you know if it works with Linux? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

According to the FAQs, it resamples. It only supports 48kHz.

d

"Don Pearce" wrote


According to the FAQs, it resamples. It only supports 48kHz.

As it is my clear understanding that it doesn't resample, I've just looked
at the FAQ. I cannot find anything there about it resampling. I will check
again just to make sure.

David.

On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:39:58 +0100, "David Looser"
wrote:

"Don Pearce" wrote


According to the FAQs, it resamples. It only supports 48kHz.

As it is my clear understanding that it doesn't resample, I've just looked
at the FAQ. I cannot find anything there about it resampling. I will check
again just to make sure.

David.


The Maplin one, yes? Very first question in the FAQ.

d