Are external DACs worth the money?

How does a CD player that has a dac play already dac converted music through another external dac?

Thanks Paul. I'm in UK. I have an old Pioneer DVD DV400 which I currently use as a CD player. I think it sounds great but would wiring up a DAC improve the quality of sound? I think the Pioneer has a good DAC built in. Would love your view. Many thanks for your videos. Very informative. Cheers. John

I think a more relevant question is do you need an external DAC when you have a mid to upper tier AVR and are streaming music through it? Say, a Denon AVR-X3xxx or X4xxx line of AVRs. Most people I know these days are not playing physical CDs.

I feel that the DAC should be the last component to buy.
At that point, if your music can’t sound any better, you may need to look for the component to make it sound better.

Plus, so many are being released, it gives the listener more time to purchase the latest and greatest model.

I use an integrated amp with pass thru capability. Would I plug the CD player to the dac to the integrated amp to the amp?

Guy who sells audio gear says to buy audio gear. Surprising.

no

I'm loving my SMSL Ho2000 AMP...awesome sound.

I recently conducted an experiment. I have a 1989 Pioneer CD player and a 1990 Pioneer amp (not really top of the range even in the day), and a pair of 2020 Magnat speakers. I used this set-up to play a 1961 recording of Doris Day and André Previn (issued on CD in 2000). I used a pair of 1965 Aures Hominum audio analysers to measure the audio qualilty, and it seemed just fine to me. When I closed my eyes, it was like being in the studio with Doris, and I felt like reaching out to try and cop a feel.
I just can't imagine anything would make the sound better.

I just stumbled onto this, and I must say I'm totally confused. Currently I have a mid-1990s JVC RX-770V A/V receiver that I am running output from my Pioneer PL-518 turntable (RCA plugs w/ground) into. No need for a pre-amp. I'm using a much newer (2019) DVD/CD player connected to the CD inputs (RCA plugs). Why would I need a DAC when the receiver must have an internal DAC(s) for the CD player signal? Or the CD player has an internal DAC with the output through the RCA plugs being analog? I realize my setup isn't exactly high-end, and that the JVC receiver isn't the best option, but it's what I have for now. When the PL-518 was new (I bought it in 1979) I had a Technics SU-7300 integrated amp (40W/channel @ 8 ohms) and a separate tuner. I expected the audio output from the JVC unit, being nearly 20 years newer, would sound as good, if not better. I can't say that is the case! Speakers aside, is there benefit to an external DAC , and would the CD output have to be run through the DAC and connected to the JVC CD input RCA connections or into the AUX input? Thanks!

Thanks I would like to know to reprove my cd I think I paid 300 yrs ago about 8 yrs or so Onkyo. Like you said a good dac would be better way to go. But what one is the big question 100 dac 300 or even 500 dac I know your dac are out of my league so what you recommend

That’s all ???? Aaahahhah i fucked 2”29 of my existence

Spot on Paul! I would still advice to not output the digital files from a CD-player but some playback device like a computer with SSD. There are some nice CD transports but the most cost effective way is to set up a computer with SSD to achieve good sound.

Paul, you’re like everyone’s favorite teacher they had in school.

Burr brown is throw away?

Hi Paul, I have a Luxman D-08 SACD player which originally retailed for $18,000. Weighs over 50 pounds and built like a tank. Would you assume that has a really good DAC?

Can you please recommend a few external dacs. Thank you.

Aliexpress has many great dacs under $20 CAD so yee

Paul until now i pretty much went with you all the way until today you spoke about DACs - you said that the DAC would be the most important part-now maybe i have misunderstood you that but I always thought the loudspeaker was the most important part in any system again Paul if I have misunderstood you I apologise

But what if you have a nice ps preamp? Do you need a external dac? I mean two great dacs?

yep.i own one of yours and it sounds great.

I’m using an inexpensive ~ 10 year old Sony DVD player as my CD transport, but I do have it connected w/ digital coax to my mid-level Denon AVR receiver. I think CD audio sounds quite good, but I’m very curious to know how the DAC inside the receiver would compare to an entry level external DAC. I.E., I wonder if adding a sub-$100 external DAC would improve sound quality enough to hear the difference.

How is the DAC on the Marantz AV8805? Is it better than the Node 2i ?

straight talk, thank you

Easy answer, yes they are.

Happy New Year! :)

Agreed. S/PDIF is lossless, it's basically the digits right off the disc (with a tiny protocol budget). Decent DAC circuits reclock the data to eliminate outside jitter and perform high speed smoothing algorithms to deliver an output signal at a fast rate to minimize analog filtering. The signal processing pre and post conversion is the biggest differentiator of sound quality among units; the advantage of having the high accuracy DAC separate from the transport unit is that when the transport fails it can be replaced while keeping the sound high end. Besides, some of these offerings are stupid priced which is unnecessary for excellent sound. Cheers!

Teac vrds 25 to a lampizator balanced Golden Gate. Happy as happy can be.

Lets not forget the Analog stage. The last part that leaves a DAC or CD player. You can have the best DAC, but if you do a weak analog stage, all of that DAC work is wasted.

I use my marantz sa15s2 as transport to a musical fidelity m1dac. much, much better.

So do I need a external DAC for my Stellar GCD preamp?

I have had a DCS Puccini, Esoteric K-01XS, and now an Esoteric K-O1XD. I think these are good single transport/DAC players.

I would recommend using a laptop as your source rather than a CD transport (with modern laptops you will need an external disc transport). Pretty much any modern computer is much better at processing and up-scaling the data than a CD transport or pre-processing stage of a 'HiFi' DAC. Be sure to rip your disks to a lossless format (ALAC or FLAC) and use a variant of the Linux OS which has amazing digital audio capabilities built in to most distros. You will need to tweak some settings files to get you output settings to match the best input settings of your DAC (my Cambridge Audio DAC takes 24 bit / 192 kHz maximum input). Best to connect your DAC via USB rather than Bluetooth or ethernet.
Of course this is not well publicised since people want to sell you 'snake oil' expensive CD transports which have not been necessary for about the last 20 years. In the early days of CD it was actually almost impossible to read data from the CD fast enough for true 14 bit resolution so all sorts of over-engineering of the transport became common and the habit stuck.

These questions just keep getting dumber and dumber 🥴

TO be fair Now days the DAC in your phone is better than what was used in most studios until the mid 2000's

thanks for the video for pointing out a use case ..
CD players have DAC. Preamps have DAC and probably are the DACs...
the absolute need for external dacs is still too subtle for me to find......

I bought a Cambridge transport this year and run it through my preamps DAC, now I hardly listen to FLAC files anymore,quite a revelation in sound q

You forgot the demographic of desktop dacs the ones built into motherboards, "audiophile motherboards" and also sound cards with built in DACs

Is that book not out yet?

Throw away DACs? Probably not. It not so much the DAC as it is what follows the DAC to the output connectors. Maybe consider a high end vintage CD player.

2020 has been a bad year, covid lockdowns, bushfires and floods here in Australia, can only get better. Have a happy 2021

Thx Paul for your insights and Happy NY to you and family

CD players now are like vinyl or a tape. So, they must look esthetic, but investments must go in DAC first.
In case you have a big collection of disks, and for some reasons don’t want to reap them, I think it makes sense to use a device with ARM processor, hard drive, and a simple CD inside. It makes no sense to invest into precise mechanics these days when computers are tiny and silent.

A good video is informative in a short amount of time. So informative that i had to watch it twice just to get it.

I bought a nice DAC last year to get away from my PC soundcard and never looked back! My ears love it!

Remember... an “external” DAC includes one in a fine integrated amp. It doesn’t need to be a completely separate item.

the transport (CD or HD server) is very important to achieve great sound.

I guess I'm ass backwards. My transport $450. (Cambridge) Dac #1 $99 (Schiit). Dac #2 XtremPro DAC/Headphone amplifier. $32.99. (better than a Dragonfly Black at 1/3 the price).