Ways to improve DAC performance???


Hello fellow A'goners,

I recently changed my system by selling my tube CD player and storing all of my CDs onto iTunes on my Macbook Pro laptop. I also subscribe to premium Spotify and really enjoy the quality of the sound.

I'm using a fairly inexpensive Ross Martin DAC, and the noise floor and detail are really excellent.

I'm new to this "music server" approach and I was wondering if there is additional software that would improve the quality of this setup.
It has to be Apple, not PC.

I've read of various programs and downloads that help, but I'm not sure if they are a substitute for a good DAC or something that can enhance a DAC's performance?

Any suggestions or advice is much appreciated, as I am a newbie in this new digital realm.

Thanks! Lincoln
lincnabby
There are devices available that use very high quality clocks that can be inserted between digital source and DAC to help assure accurate timing and reduce jitter. Such a device with most gear can probably only help and not hurt. How much in each case would likely vary. Some digital source devices may already have extremely accurate clocks and timing and not benefit.

Its hard to know how much difference might be heard, but no harm in trying probably, especially if a satisfaction guarantee is offered by the seller.

Also some DACs are designed to reclock the signal more accurately out of the box, and are hence less likely to benefit from a solution like this. BEnchmark is one DAC brand like this that comes to mind.

Bottom line is more accurate timing of data into the D to A conversion process, however or wherever achieved, should always yield better sound

If doing something like this to help assure low jitter and digital timing quality does not make a difference, then a different DAC with different flavor of sound might be the next thing to try. All DACs should and likely will sound diffferent, so individual situations and preferences may be the main factor here.

It would be nice if these kind of jitter reduction devices provided some kind of reliable metric display to indicate how much difference in timing quality is actually measured case by case, but I do not know of anything that does this, so you kind of have to trust the theory and test it with your ears as best you can.

In practice, most decent quality digital sources made in the last ten years or so that I have tried all sound similarly quite good to me when used with the right sounding DAC. But I suppose there is always a way to do better. But it can be splitting hairs sometimes I fear and hard to determine for sure.

Another thing to try that can make a difference is changing the length of the digital cable to avoid reflections and such and enable more accurate signal transmission. Longer runs of digital wire are rumoured to sometimes be superior in th is way to shorter ones. Another easy thing to try if you buy used especially and do not overpay or buy from a wire company also with satisfaction guarantee of some sort..
Don't forget about the quality of the source. The type of music file (Apple Lossless, wav, flac, mp3) and compression rate will factor into the quality of the sound.
I assume you ripped your CDs to Apple Lossless? Many members are using XLD for more flexiblity. (free download)
You are far better saving for a High quality dac that has DSD
Which is the hot new ticket. Why not buy a program for ripping and converting files like DB power amp which is very accurate to a external 2T drive, then to a Auraliti player then you can sit on your IPhone or IPad
And direct and play Wav files or flac files right from your chair even upstairs,you download a Mpad app and you are golden.your whole library at your disposal.
I would also like to mention your Usb cable from a seperate hard drive, as well as USB cable is Very important , bits are not just bits the timing
And accuracy is very important.i use Wire World
Silverstarlight , and Platinum Starlight Digital cables with Excellent results.
Install Audirvana - it bypasses the apple processing and delivers the raw data from the file to the dac. - it can also play flac if you desire.

It pre-loads tracks - so there is less of an issue using wireless, which can lead to dropouts with itunes alone

It also integrates with iTunes, which I use with a droid app called Retune to control from my tablet

I was very surprised at the difference it made - better imaging and dynamics

Get a half decent cable - I use DH Labs for USB and optical- they've so far proved to be better than other brands I have tried - like Chord. They do affect the sound, because some cables drop data when streaming and the dac just fills in the missing data best it can.

Also, make sure you either backup your tunes frequently - or get a drive (NAS or usb) with dual drives that support RAID - I've now reloaded my cd's a couple of times due to hard disk failure

Hope this helps