What’s a DAC to you?

If you have at all picked up an audio or home theater magazine in the recent months you can’t help but notice all the mentioning’s of “DAC’s.”  There are a lot of people out there that are just unsure of what this is, do I need one, what can it do, or where does it go?   This article will hopefully let you understand and answer all the questions you have regarding these units.
Lets start out by going over what a DAC is, DAC is short for Digital to Analog Converter.  Unless your listening to vinyl or pulled out a tape from under the sofa it is most likely you are listening to some sort of digital source component.  This could be an iPod or MP3 play of other branding, a CD or SACD player, Bluray player, streaming device and so on all these devices have in common that they use a digital signal for output.  Well you might say that “hey my CD player is using RCA type cable to go into my amplifier”…. Here is where a DAC comes into play, inside your CD player or other digital source there is a small (usually inexpensive) chip processor that converts the digital signals into electrical pulses or and analog signal.  This process is where a lot of information is lost and information is compressed since the processor in the unit is just there to be a basic and cost effective way of doing this.  One way to avoid this is to use an external DAC, as in any good HIFI system breaking out a components job to one simple function will in most cases give you better performance.

External Digital to Analog Converters become a dedicated piece or electronics that really specialize in turning that digital signal into the analog realm.  Maybe at this point you’re thinking, why would I want something to become analog, isn’t digital better?  The short answer is, no.  The reason for this is that to create an audible signal the speaker must move, to move the speaker the amplifier needs to make an amplified electrical signal this electrical signal is “analog.”  So at some point every signal is translated back into the analog world. So lets get back to what the DAC can do for you.

As technology is evolving and ever changing the music world is trying to keep up and still keep everything sounding the way it was intended by the artist.  One of the largest and fastest growing sources for music is the Internet.  Music is no longer purchased on CD’s like it was 10 years ago, but individual songs are downloaded.  So how do we get these download songs from our computers into a hifi system, by the use of a DAC.  DAC’s will often have multiple formats of inputs to choose from, some of these being USB, Toslink or optical, Digital Coax (s/pdif),  XLR (AES/EBU), and even firewire.  With these connections a DAC can be hooked up to a multitude of sources and be used for all of them.  Using this on a computer or device like Sonos can get you all your digital audio into your system with out compromising the sound quality.

How do you know if you need a DAC, since you system seems to be working just fine as it is now?  Well DAC’s can range in price and performance.  From simple USB only DACs at under $100 up to the highest end pieces in the tens or thousands of dollars.  Well keeping in reason Sound World of Appleton can offer numerous options and help you determine if your particular system is in need of or could benefit from using one of these units.  Stop in and demo on of these today.
I hope this has answered some of the questions on what a DAC or Digital to Analog Converter is .  If you have any other questions please call or stop in to talk with one of our sales professionals.