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DAC OR NO DAC???

I am a newbie here and just getting into hifi and I am sure this is a dumb question but if anyone can comment and help me out?

I am currently listening to a lot of youtube music videos(quality varies) and tidal from my hp laptop via hdmi connect to a marrantz 7704. the 7704 seems to be decoding the signal pretty well. I tried a audioquest dragonfly red and it gave me some interference or something. ( maybe I needed the jitterbug to go with it?) so I returned it and just using the hdmi. Happy with tidal also but really like the music videos. One question is hdmi sound quality not as good as I could get? Can a dac help from this source? a dac to try that uses an hdmi? or should I just forget hdmi? A dac to try for under 500 or should I just wait and spend more? Thanks


My startup system consists of bw 804 d3's ( I do see where people say they are a little bright but so far I am enjoying them:) Marantz 7704, McIntosh mc207, bw 805d3 and htm1d3 for movies, fathom 212 that I turn up for movies and back down for music, source as described above and audio technical at lp5 ( I know it is a cheaper one but wasn't sure how much vinyl I would listen to but I am impressed with the quality of the new vinyl and sound I am currently getting compared to digital) -room 13 x 15 no acoustic treatments yet




rwrightcpa

Showing 1 response by bthartman

bthartman
32 posts
 
Considering the amp and speakers you've got, if digital music from Tidal is an important part of your serious listening, I'd urge you to wait and get something more upstream.  Are you paying for hi-rez Tidal?

If you really want to stay at $500 or less, you might consider looking at a BlueSound Node 2 or Auralic Aries Mini.  They both can connect via WiFi to your home network and directly stream from Tidal, as well as blue tooth connection from your laptop and other devices.  There is also the Explorer DAC from Meridian in addition to the other DACs recommended by previous posters.

For a bit more ($1,000) the Meridian 218 is a Roon ready DAC with MQA decoding, though it doesn't offer blue tooth.  Moving up to around $2K there's the Mytek Brooklyn or the Shiit Yggdrasil.  The Mytek can operate as a preamp, and has a single analog input that can be configured as a phono input to use the onboard MM/MC phono preamp.  There are also similar products from Auralic, though they don't appear to do full MQA decoding if that's a current or future consideration for you.

And of course, from that pricepoint and up there are a whole lot of options.
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