AMP Man

Akapod - I think you and others that have replied sort of agree with what I'm saying. However, I guess the point I'm trying to make and see if I'm right is that the technology currently being used is technically capable of transferring the amount of data required, but the protocol and hardware that has been implemented is inadequate under certain conditions. However, if this is true, then doesn't that make these products not fit for purpose unless the manufacturer advertises its limitations instead of end users needing great forums like this to make their expensive purchase sound more than half decent. It must also leave every single customer wondering if their dac really is working at its best or not - how will you know if the product is dependent on so many other factors. For example, if I went out and bought a four seater Ferrari, but after purchase found out that if I had 3 other people in the car i couldnt drive it unless I increased the suspension, I would be feeling a quite ripped off. Having looked a little more into this, pro-audio equipment uses dedicated cards - some with external hardware that do not suffer from these same problems, or at least their performance is not directly impacted by having a poor pc power supply or a cheap USB cable as the product supplied is a solution fit for purpose. I am therefore left with the opinion to not go with one of these so called high end dacs I can't help but think that the manufacturer hasn't done their job right and that i'm being conned. It also makes me left feeling sorry for all of those people who have been conned into buying one.

Not quite sure I agree with this idea that digital music is not just about 1's and 0's, as until the music becomes analogue - that's exactly what it is, digital data that is made up of nothing more. It is because it is 1's and 0's that allows music to be compressed, processed and stored with such ease. It is also this same reason why there is absolutely no justification for companies to be selling products that can't seem to grasp this concept and deal with what in modern terms, is not really that much data and throughput. Compare the amount of data and processing of a DAC with a modern day graphics card and the difference is massive - yet graphics cards seem to work with such ease and awe. Maybe we need a larger company to develop a DAC that has a larger R&D budget to get a product that actually works as it should. I guess I need to demo some of the high end equipment to to see what the difference is, and then determine for myself if they really are worth the money - or if it's just a big hype for some people to justify to themselves in spending loads of money on equipment to say they have the best of the best.

Hi All, I've just joined up as a new comer after reading and attempting to learn from what appears to be some very experienced people with some great knowledge. However, and hopefully I can be forgiven, as this maybe because I'm just not too technically minded, but I just don't quite understand some of the basic principles that are being suggested will improve the overall system. In the case where you have a DAC connected to a computer, where the information is transported from the PC to a DAC, lets say one of reasonable quality costing a couple of grand, surely if you're paying for a good quality product that connects to industry standard computer components such as USB to transmit the music in digital form, why do you need to start upgrading components in the PC to make the sound better, less jitter and higher quality. From what I can see, doesn't that imply a fundamental design issue with the DAC itself if it is designed to use a particular technology such as USB, but in order to get the best out of the DAC, an upgrade to various components in the PC such as power supply, motherboard and USB cable is needed. I would have expected that as long as the computer itself has enough processing power to deal with the processing and throughput of the data to the DAC via it's USB connection, then the quality of those components that are used in the computer shouldn't matter as the information being transmitted is digital. Or, is it that these parts really do make a difference due to a fundamental flaw in the design and principles currently used within existing DACs. Cheers, AMP Man.