DAC's?

[MAC-PRO-DEMON]

I have one I will sell you. In the box as new for 60% of the best on-line price you can find. No kidding I really do have one for sale.

That said, the audio quality is not as good as what is built-into the Macbook or iPod. It would be a "down grade". It also lacks an analog volume control.

Is it really worse than what is in the mac? I used it for a while as a headphone output my iMac and thought it gave a much wider tonal range...currently it is used as an DAC for an old PC that I have in my room connected up to a 25 year old amplifier and speakers..it is far better than the built in audio card

 

[AllieNeko]

Is it really worse than what is in the mac? I used it for a while as a headphone output my iMac and thought it gave a much wider tonal range...currently it is used as an DAC for an old PC that I have in my room connected up to a 25 year old amplifier and speakers..it is far better than the built in audio card

Mac's generally have excellent built-in audio. I've worked with a sound engineer who was formerly employed by QSC and we compared several inexpensive USB interfaces to the built-in one on an iMac. The BEST one sounded just a hair better than the iMac... (that was an M-Audio MobilePre). This was years ago, and just using what we could dig up, not buying anything good, to be fair.

 

[KimJongEun]

I use the Audinst HUD-MX1 which is a combined DAC and headphone amp. Combined with the Sennheiser HD598 headphone, the sound is phenomenal.

 

[ChrisA]

I agree with you 100% and I was referring not to them using good quality cables (I agree) but rather EXPENSIVE cables. Pretty, net jacketed, NICE cables. That half the time are crap and I have to loan them a GOOD cable that's not nearly as pretty. But yes, I did state it poorly, cable quality matters a lot less as a mic-level, low-impedance, balanced signal. Thus why DI's exist in the first place instead of bringing the signal back to the console as an instrument signal

Regardless, my general point remains, the "audiophile" crowd is hilariously gullible at times. $500 CAT5e Ethernet patch cables (serious product Denon tried to sell as receiver link cables at one point in history), "directional" audio cable, bogus pseudo-science words, etc. It's freaking hilarious - and ought to be illegal.

There are worse crowds. I dare you to look up such products as Asea (VERY expensive salt water solution sold as a nutritional supplement), Amway (LOTS of their products, but "Perfect Water" is probably the most ridiculous), BioPro (and all the ridiculous similar products, bits of plastic and sometimes metal supposedly infused with some type of voodoo magic to keep cell phone signals from harming you), and such similar (mostly multi-level-marketed) products preying on the poor, the gullible, the ignorant, the stupid, and the desperate. Ideally, you fit in more than one of those categories for most such products.

As much as we'd like to we can't blame the poor state of science education, (Maybe we can blame people who as kids slept through it.) But really the root of the problem is that if people WANT to believe things they will no matter how silly. Those audiophiles want to believe that all they need to do is spend money which is SO much easier than thinking.

We see the same think in politics. Everyone wants to believe we can cut spending while maintaining all the same government services and lower taxes while cutting the deficit. Of course it's not possible. But people want to believe and thinking is hard work.

No matter how much you spend, HiFi still sounds like HiFi and not a live performance. If you want a like performance learn to play some instrument.

 

[rpg51]

Hey, its the American way man! Its those "job creators" at work selling the Brooklyn Bridge and keeping our economy humming along.

Seriously though - will I notice any significant difference between an audio engine D1 (usb) DAC and an Airport Express (wireless) used as a DAC?