2. pc-audio
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Jump in now or wait?

Very close to purchasing a Benchmark DAC1 usb to use pc as sole source. Music is saved in apple lossless w/error correction in Itunes. Is it worth buying now (will need to buy new as these units seem to be rarely available used) or is the pace of technology changing/new products coming to market such that I should wait 6 months or so? Have to believe a number of fellow agoners are wrestling with this same issue.

Relatedly, is the DAC1 going to get me sonically where a nice CD player would (thinking of used Ayre CX-7e).

Thanks for any input.
dokosan
dokosan OP
41 posts
 
Steve - Hmm. Thought I had this figured out. Will there be a problem going from pc using usb to DAC1 due to this memory spooling issue?

herman
2,215 posts
 
I still don't get it. I'm not saying you are wrong, but I've been involved with electronics and computers for a long time and this is news to me. Perhaps I don't understand what you mean but it seems to me that if computers generated errors reading from memory and transferring the data nothing would ever work.
eweedhome
227 posts
 
I came very close to going for a PC-type source a few months ago, in part b/c I kept hearing that you could get better sound than out of a CD player. But the thought of having to learn a bunch of new technology, load up a bunch of my CDs, etc., etc., knowing all the while that (a) I don't enjoy technology for technology's sake, and (b) something super duper and newer would be no doubt be coming down the pike in a few years anyway, caused me to decide to go "backwards" and try a tube CD player with a good reputation--so I bought an EAR Acute CD player, and am quite liking it. And I'm really thrilled not to be worrying about all this new technology...yet!
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Dokosan - no problem with USB. Even though it does not have error correction, if you stay shorter than the max USB cable length of 5 meters, you should be fine.

However, you should be aware that not all computers USB ports behave well with streaming audio. Only certain USB ports on a give computer or laptop will work well and some computers, such as inexpensive Dell laptops are terrible for streaming audio. You cannot get rid of the pops and clicks no matter what you try. I recommend Toshiba laptops.

I use the same USB firmware that the DAC-1 uses for my products and for most cases it works perfectly.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Herman - what you need to understand is that the transport protocol that is used for streaming audio over USB is different than that used for printers and disk drives over USB. There is no retry and no error correction for streaming audio. Because streaming audio is real-time and these other peripherals are not, it uses an entirely different protocol. In fact there are actually several different isochronous USB protocols that can be used for audio streaming, all without retry or error detection/correction.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
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