2. digital
  3. 1137005401

mp3 bit stream to DAC?

I have an mp3 player (archos av340) which in addition to the headphone analogue audio out, has an SPDIF out. I used to plug the SPDIF out to my yamaha tuner/reciever/amp SPDIF in and play through my stereo system. The SPDIF out/in gave much better sound than the archos analogue out/ yamaha analogue right/left in's I used before I learned I could go the "digital" route (I guess the yamaha had a better DAC than the archos?).

The question - I bought new speakers (quad 989's), a tube amp and an ACK DAC 2.0 to be able to again play my mp3's the digital route through my new system. I get NO sound or indicator light "on" on the ACK indicating the ACK is getting a digital signal fed to it. Should the ACK (or any other DAC for that matter) be able to get and DAC mp3 bit streams (like my yamaha reciever did)? If so, any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong.

Finally, I know mp3's through a "nice" system is an oxymoron (i.e. the mp3 signal is compressed compared to a raw CD signal), but, most of my music is mp3's so I still want to make things work.

????
hovendic

Showing 4 responses by hovendic

hovendic OP
9 posts
 
Just wanted to close the loop on this, I bought another DAC and it does work on the mp3 bit stream from the spdif out of my mp3 player.
hovendic OP
9 posts
 
Steuspeed, thanks, any thoughts on what DAC to buy to handle mp3 bit streams?
hovendic OP
9 posts
 
Peak, it is labeled input, but the manual says it is both in and out, and it has worked out to my yamaha digital in. That is the only reason I have kept it so long (the newer versions do not have it, I believe some worry about digital rights).
hovendic OP
9 posts
 
Steuspeed - I forget the name, but there WAS a difference, in that they did play through the spdif/digital out into the new DAC

Edesilva - thanks for the input, I think you're post is exactly right. It is a PCM stream in 16 bit, 44.1 KHz, identical to any other "transport", but compressed as you say. They play "allright" to my ear but will download some wav files of some of the same songs and try to listen to a difference.

As a side note, the archos is great, but I think I am going to also get an xbox that has a digital (optical) out, store and plays my mp3's that way as well (I think I have to install some software on it first to do so though).
Still looking into it on the internet.
More to discover