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Suggestions on using a Roku w/external DAC?

Howdy!

I'm a big fan of my Roku boxes(non-Soundbridge versions) for streaming music. I specifically use Panadora and love the flexibility of creating new stations. I'm finding that 95% of my music listening has now transitioned over to Pandora from traditional CDs and FM. I have less time to sit down to critically listen and enjoy my collection and the Roku/Pandora combination is filling my desire for variety and discovering new artist. I've upgraded my Panadora account to Pandora One which streams at 192K bits per second(not a techie, so I don't know if that's very good or not). I'm looking to improve the sound even more since I can't imagine the internal DAC of the sub-$100 Roku is a strong feature.I figure an external DAC would really open up the music. I'm heavily eyeballing the Cambridge Audio DacMagic because of it's many features, mostly positive reviews and the low cost. Anybody using the Roku w/an external DAC care to comment on the improvements or non-improvements it made? DAC suggestions(has to be Toslink)?

Hanx!
avalon65

Showing 1 response by audioengr

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
The digital sources are actually more important than the DAC. The DAC can improve things, but will always be limited by the jitter of the digital sources. Sources such as a Samsung TV are particularly bad, as is the Roku digital output.

All of these can be fixed however and have low jitter if they are reclocked by a reference reclocker like the Synchro-Mesh. This simply inserts between the digital source (Roku or Samsung TV or CD player or Apple TV etc.) and the DAC. It is powered from its own separate power supply and has a low-jitter custom clock inside. The difference is big. This is MORE IMPORTANT than the DAC. But don't believe me, read the customer reviews:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/news-and-reviews/synchro-mesh

The best scenario is to use my BNC-BNC cable with RCA adapters and the Dynamo power supply with the Synchro-Mesh. A true reference digital source.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
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