still learning wrote:
Mark D. Zacharias Apr 28, 5:54 pm show options





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still learning wrote:
David B asks:

I am auditioning a used California Audio Labs DAC with my home
theatre receiver (Kenwood 6060). I'm hoping to use this more for
two channel

in
the future.
The light on the receiver that signals clipping will come on briefly
(flicker) during playback on some CD's. There is no audible clipping

but when I play these same CD's using the DAC's in the receiver or
the DVD/CD player (Toshiba), I don't get the flickering clip light.
It is my guess that even though there is no audible clipping going
on, this is not a good thing. Any imput from you learned gentlemen
would

be
appreciated.

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Conventional wisdom is that outboard DAC's in general are a bad idea
since they can't improve on the perfromance of the one inside your CD

player or DVD player. What they likely CAN do is degrade
performance.


My advice is return it and learn more about why they aren't a good
investment.



Where do you get that? An external DAC may or may not improve on a
built-in
DAC circuit, but there is no such "conventional wisdom". Many built-in
DAC's
are cheap, cheap, cheap. A digital output going to a competently
designed
DAC will probably sound noticeably better than many all-in-one units.

Mark Z.
__________________________________________________ __________

That must be why so many CD players sound exactly like nearly every
other CD player. There's no such evidence that outboard, i.e., more
expensive DAC's are in any way audibly superior, to the ones that come
built in.

Ancedotes don't count.

Says you.
I stand by my statement. Do you really believe, for example, that a 59.00
RCA 5-disc player made in China by Hu-Nos-Hu and sold at Walmart is really
going to have as good a D/A section as a big, heavy Denon from 1989 with
Dual Burr-Browns? Or that the digital output of this cheap player would not
sound better through an external DAC? Give me a break. I'm not saying I
could reliably tell the difference in an A/B test, but I sure as heck think
I could tell after living with one or the other for a while.

Mark Z.