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What the benifit of using a separate dac?

Hi, I have a Sim Audio Moon Exclipse Cd Player, my question is what's the benifit of using a separate DAC, when do you know that your player is out dated to the point that you need to upgrade or are you better to use a external dac.Using the digital out put of the cd player are you by passing all internal clock and dac's etc, then the player becomes just a transport? Is there is a benifit to be gained by doing this, what sort of dac would you look for, what the differance between the better brands? I currently have Pass labs X1 pre and x350.5 power, mit 3.1 speaker cables, 2.2 interconnects and Talon firebird speaker, Iam only interested in red book, would be great if any body could shed some light on this subject for me.
k_rose

Showing 3 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
1. To be independant of the transport (things break)
2. To play other formats
3. Connect computer (server)
4. Connect DVD and DTV (use cheap DVD player with jitter rejecting DAC)

DACs with jitter rejection (upsampling) are nice - they allow to use cheap transport and cable but some people prefare non-oversampling sound.

I have Benchmark connected directly to power amp (it has volume control) with one input connected to DVD player (coax) and the other to DTV (toslink). I plan to connect third input to my computer.

Benchmark is on neutral/revealing side (not warm) while more expensive Bel Canto DAC3 is a little more "organic" - check reviews of both on the web (stereophile.com)
Benchmark has 30 day free try-out program and Bel Canto might have as well. If you decide to get Benchmark buy new and the latest - possibly DAC1 USB ($300 more) since it has better XLR output drivers.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Jax2 - It depends when you listened to Benchmark. Early ones had Signetics/Philips NE5532 Op-amps that sounded thin. Around 2001/2002 Philips had factory fire (burned down) and stopped making them. Texas Instruments bought the license and designed new larger die that sounds better. Benchmark also needs a little time to get civilized but even after hundred hours doesn't sound warm (if that's what you're after).
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Blindjim - just to toss monkey wrench: Empirical Audio converts upsampling jitter rejecting DAC (Benchmark DAC1) to NOS non-jitter rejecting DAC (plus other improvements) -you might be sorry with cheap transport and cable. I'm pretty sure Steve from Empirical Audio advices customers but others might not. The point is that modds sometimes can change functionality/make it worse and customer has to be informed.

I even suspect that some mods might introduce a little of harmonic distortions that Benchmark is free of to make sound more lively and less sterile (less clean).
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