External DACs

[Mark Aronica]

I'm interested in purchasing an external DAC for my Squeezebox. Currently I
have a Creek 5350 SE integrated amplifier which only accepts RCA analog
inputs. Two questions:

1) Is it reasonable to assume that I'll get better sound quality running my
SB through an External (standalone) DAC and then running the analog out of
the DAC into my Creek? In my side-by-side listening comparisons, my SB isn't
quite up to the same quality as my moderately priced CD player, even when
playing FLAC -> WAV.
2) Could folks please list out my DAC options? I know there is a wide
selection, but what are some good ones between $200 -> $1000? Has anyone out
there actually tried out a couple and could give person impressions? Please
focus on those that offer RCA compatible outputs so that they'll work with my
Creek amp.

Thanks so much for your help,
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Speck [mailto:speck (AT) ruc (DOT) dk]
Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 11:10 AM
To: Slim Devices Discussion
Subject: Re: [slim] fix coming for b&k, meridian, superdac, et al

On 27/2-2004, at 19:08, Sean Adams wrote:

>
> Using an analyzer, we found the problem, and after two weeks of
> calling Micronas every single day, they have provided a fix.
>
> New firmware coming this weekend. Confirmed fix for b&k - expected to
> fix all other s/pdif receivers.

Works now with my SuperDAC 2496. Thanks for spending time on this
problem!

----
- Peter Speck

[Mitch Harding]

> 1) Is it reasonable to assume that I'll get better sound quality running
my
> SB through an External (standalone) DAC and then running the analog out of
> the DAC into my Creek? In my side-by-side listening comparisons, my SB
isn't
> quite up to the same quality as my moderately priced CD player, even when
> playing FLAC -> WAV.

Side-question about FLAC on Slim Server -> SqueezeBox:

You say here "even when playing FLAC -> WAV". I haven't done anything
special with my Slim Server setup, just put the flac.exe executable in my
system path. When I play FLAC files on my SqueezeBox, is it playing them as
WAVs (which is what I had assumed was happening until reading this message)?
Or is there some transcoding to mp3 going on?

Thanks,
Mitch

[Mark Bennett]

Mitch Harding wrote:
> Side-question about FLAC on Slim Server -> SqueezeBox:
>
> You say here "even when playing FLAC -> WAV". I haven't done anything
> special with my Slim Server setup, just put the flac.exe executable in my
> system path. When I play FLAC files on my SqueezeBox, is it playing them as
> WAVs (which is what I had assumed was happening until reading this message)?
> Or is there some transcoding to mp3 going on?
>
> Thanks,
> Mitch

This will depend on your settings in server/convert.conf. The default
is to decode FLAC to WAV for transmission to the Squeezebox. For other
targets (SLIMP3 or software player) the default is to transcode to MP3.

This can all be configured by settings in your convert.conf file if
you want it to do something different, but the defaults generally make
sense.