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DAC Advice (amongst other things)
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richyj View Drop Down
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Joined: 07 Jul 2009
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    Posted: 07 Jul 2009 at 5:08pm
Hi All,
 
I'm new to the forum and to Graham Slee products.  I recently purchased a Voyager to compliment a pair of Sennheiser HD650s and it was a great move.  After plenty of running in, the set up sounds great.  I have much of my collection on my Dell laptop in FLAC format (played through Foobar2000) and even with the factory fitted, bog standard sound card the sound is unreal, immersive and the standard I was hoping for. 
 
My question is - how can I cut the laptop out of the equation?  From what I understand, the laptop (or rather the soundcard) is the weak link in getting the most out of the set up.
 
By adding a DAC (I've seen the SuperPro 707 and Vdac mentioned elsewhere on the net) will I get any significant gain over what I have now?
 
My desktop computer has stereo jacks but it's a bugger to carry up and down the stairs when I want to chill out in other rooms Wink - hence the laptop set up.
 
All advice or tips would be appreciated.
 
Richard
 
PS - A quick mention of good service from Audio Elevation who sold me my Voyager - really quick and damn professional.  We are always quick to complain when something goes wrong but in this instance praise is due for outstanding service - thanks to Darren (at Audio Elevation)
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mrarroyo View Drop Down
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Joined: 28 Jul 2008
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Points: 1401 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mrarroyo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jul 2009 at 11:34pm
Hi Richard welcome to the machine! I will try to answer you question to the best of my ability.
 
First of does your current soundcard offer either optical or coaxial out? If yes you can use it to feed an external DAC via either. If your current soundcard does not have a coaxial or optical out you have two options. First you could buy a new sound card to get the optical or coaxial out or you could feed the external DAC via USB. Be advise that unless you are willing to pay over $3,000 USD there are no external USB DAC's capable of resolutions higher than 24/96.
 
The second question is do you want an NOS (non-oversampling) DAC or do you want up-sampling/over-sampling DAC. The sound is quite different w/ the NOS DAC being more organic and at leas to me musical versus a more detailed/analytical presentation. I should point that the line is blurred and you could get NOS DACs which are quite detailed and vice-versa. One major issue is money specially if you consider used units, DAC's can range from $50 to $$$. To complicate issues you have to decide if you want a DAC w/ a tube buffer output section or not.
 
One other option you could explore is to send your music  via wireless. For example you could consider the Apple Airport system. For this you need a base station w/ a remote location. The remote location has an optical out as well as an stereo mini out. The first would be used to feed your DAC and the second your amp (one or the other unless you have multiple users/units). By using a wireless transmission you would use your laptop (upstairs) as a server for the source music and do not have to log a laptop around. So when downstairs you get the wireless going and feed the amp via a mini to mini from the Airport Express remote unit until you can decide which DAC you wish to purchase for the downstairs.
 
As far as portable or semi-portable DACs I am very partial to the iBasso D10. It can be fed via USB, Optical, or Coaxial. This unit also has a built in headphone amp and comes w/ various op-amps you can swap to tailor the sound to your liking. Most importantly it can be  used as an stand along DAC since it has a line out which you could use to feed your Voyager.
 
Hope I have answered your question, if not ask away.
Miguel
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Darren/Audio Elevati View Drop Down
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Points: 144 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Darren/Audio Elevati Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jul 2009 at 7:40pm
Richard - this is the Miguel I told you about that I said would be likely to post a reply if you put your question on the GSP forum - they're a friendly bunch eh?!  Hope it helps as he knows a lot more than me (and many others) about this side of things.
 
Miguel - thanks for coming up with the "goods" for my customer.
Audio Elevation - taking your hi-fi to another level.
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mrarroyo View Drop Down
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Joined: 28 Jul 2008
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Points: 1401 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mrarroyo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jul 2009 at 11:06pm
Thanks for the nice words, I hope Richard has fun implementing his system. I find the search is the best part (short of listening Big%20smile).
Miguel
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Lucabeer View Drop Down
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Points: 719 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lucabeer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jul 2009 at 10:18am
I have the Superpro707 USB. Good sound quality, inexpensive, very compact. BUT, it can be a little troublesome with USB on some systems (=occasional little dropouts in sound even if you have a perfectly configured computer... it simply is very picky on the USB chipset of the PC). Via optical or coaxial, it's fantastic. I use it with optical, after some unsuccessful tinkering with the USB.
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