diego;581843 Wrote: > Thanks for the advise! Of course I have checked it all. Well yes, you > might be right that the sound is not bettered by an external DAC. > However, I would locate the reason at another place: The digital signal > of the SBT. Its really no surprise: Not only the price does not allow > for real high end gear, also the design. This elegant small little > thing is not much bigger than today's mobile phones... but there is > obviously not enough space to put in the components needed to build a > decent DAC. Already the power supply shows the limitations... So, one > has to stay realistic! > > Don't take me wrong: The SB is a GERAT piece of gear for the cost, also > sound-wise. For the money spent, I really could not expect more of it. > But it is not for "audiophiles" as Logitech tells us in their > publicity. By far not. My Creek CD 50 MK II is not either a ultra fancy > piece and costs about 1000 US$. That places it somewhere in the middle > of serious hi-fi gear, but not at all at the high end. But for this > price, it makes just ONE thing and it does it right. The SB does a > dozen of things for 1/3 of the price. And it still sounds OK, but it's > still really far away from the Creek CD player's sound quality, that is > just way more dynamic, precise, detailed - just more natural. And there > are much better ones out there, of course. > > So what I am looking for now, is, to spend about the same money I spent > into the SB, for only the last step, that is one of the more crucial > ones, sound-wise: Converting the digital signal back to analog. I guess > it is not an irrational assumption that that it should be possible to > really better the sound like that. > > Now, if the digital signal that comes out of the S/PDIF-connections is > already so weak that it does not allow for a substantially better > conversion to analog, I would also consider connecting a USB DAC > (according to JohnSwenson manual, here: > http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82110 , thanks for that, > John!) - provided that it really gives a considerably better end result. > > One promising piece I have seen is this one: > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250680984439 > > It just does not have any additional feature than digital analog > conversion and it seems, that all the money spent into that is spent > for this one and only purpose. That might give a nice result... just: > How to know for sure before buying??? > > OK... let us put the "pain threshold" a bit higher, at < 500 US$. If it > REALLY does what I hope - considerably enhance the sound - I will save > up a bit more for it... > > Thanks again, looking forward for your answers! Diego
IMHO the spdif is ok if the files are ok you got a good digital tranport in the Touch . spdif is unlikely to be the weakest link even if it's not perfect . Go an audition some nice dacs :) bring the Touch and an USB stick with files I cant give precise advice there so many dac brands and so many brands have their "house sound" or tries to be very neutral to the source . If you like creek , do they have something DAC like . Is not creek one of those brands that have a "sound" much like linn or NAIM ? Maybe this is not a question about absolute fidelity, but your preferences in what sound you like ? Btw don't trust self important audio bloggers on the internet for petes sake ;) My limited experince is that in ye olde days 1990's DAC's where very sensitive to spdif quality and many sources where not good. Now it seems like sources are much better regardless of price and well designed DAC's cope very well with "bad" signals, possible with the exceptions of some of the later fads using antique circuits in very weird designs (NOS dac's etc), some people can not stand that it just works without much fiddling. You will soon find on these forums that's there a heated debate re changing the stock PSU to something not switch-mode . The most sensible opinion is that the Touch itself is not affected(it has even more internal regulators so the external one won't matter much), but the PSU can in some cases have a backwash of gunk going into your other equipment. DNM is of that rather weird opinion that hifi should not be screened at all, they have acrylic case work so they will be at the mercy of any radio electrical or magnetic gunk in the neighborhood ? -- Mnyb -------------------------------------------------------------------- Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 and assorted amps SiriuS, Classe' Primare and Dynadio speakers, Contour 4 Contour Center, and Contour 1.3SE for the rear ch. Rel Stadium 3 sub. Bedroom/Office: Boom Kitchen: SB3 + powered Fostex PM0.4 Miscellaneous use: Radio (with battery) I use a Controller various ir-remotes and a Eee-PC with squeezeplay to control this ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82539 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
