Conecting J River+DAC directly to Audio Reseach Power Amp????

[altsouza]

Hi,

 

My System is J River (Intel mini itx PC)/Teralink USB to SPdif/GigaWorks DAC (2011 version)/Audio Reserach SP16 Pre/Audio Research VS55 Power Amp/Spendor A6 Speakers.

 

I tried to connect the DAC directly to the Power Amp, and the sound became much more transparent.

 

I do not know what I loose?? Soudstage??

 

Does anyone have tried use J River directly to the power amp?? Results??

 

Any help will be wellcome.

 

Thanks

Antonio Souza

 

[esldude]

You likely lose nothing.

 

You eliminate a pre-amp as a source of fidelity loss.

 

I know I had a few CD's years ago that were recording at a lower than average level. I used them to run a DAC straight into a power amp. Always better than a pre-amp, or passive control. Eventually equipment became available that let you control volume digitally without it ruining sound quality.

 

I don't have J. River, but assuming it does digital volume control correctly it should be an excellent way to play music at very high sound quality.

 

[One and a half]

on using a pre-amp or using the computer/dac to drive volume directly to a power amp have little overall consensus, as it seems to be very system dependant and how the digital volume control works in the players.

 

To my mind, digital volume has the drawback of interpolating data close to audible, where ambience/echo is important and the calculations are an estimate and are not accurate. The approach is far better in the analog domain, in addition to impedance matching which some DACs aren't necessarily designed to do.

 

For best results with J river, set the volume to maximum, use your pre-amp's volume control. Possible that when you removed the pre-amp you ended up with a removing a hidden hum loop/noise loop into the the pre-amp which dissappeared when you connected to the power amp directly. The noise component from computers is horrendous, but it can (and hopefully in your case is) controlled to be inaudible.

 

See also:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Resurrecting-Preamp

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Digital-Volume-DAC-Integrated

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Digital-Volume-Control

 

[blaine78]

In my personal opinion, i've always preferred a pre-amp, especially if only a digital volume is your only control. even the best digital volumes have sounded flat and lose dynamics to my ears.

 

[altsouza]

Hi,

 

Thank you.

 

I am just afraid to loose some "Air", and or Soundstage.

And I do not know if the J River's Volume Control is good.

 

Let me know.

 

Antonio

 

[goldsdad]

Apologies for being curt, but it's your audio system - you're the only person who can decide which setup sounds best to your ears. Try the alternatives and trust your own judgement.

 

 

[Triodeuser]

You might not have lost anything, and may simply be better.

 

No preamps works great for me, using a Lynx twoB digital AES/EBU out to a digital crossover, using the DAC's built into the crossover to go straight out to the amps.

 

More transparent, great soundstage, no problems at all, only benefits.

 

I have had some great preamps in this system, but _in my config_ I sound better going out to amps.

 

Note: this is gonna be system dependent.

 

As another poster said, it's what sounds best to your ears.

 

JRiver really sounds good, but be sure you set it up correctly for best sound in your system. It's different, with different systems and I changed my setup when Lynx updated their drivers.

 

[crisnee]

That sounds fine in my system. I mostly use XXHiEnd in the same way directly into a Parasound Zamp, but J River also sounds good. Edit (Oops I forgot to mention that Zamp is a power amp)

 

Although J River has lots of DSP options, ways of controlling volume etc. unfortunately they divulge very little information on anything they implement, and they seem to be very self-satisfied and happy about that, so don't expect to find out much from them.

 

Chris