Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

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?

Practical experience. Theoretical analysis.

An external DAC may or may not improve on a
built-in DAC circuit, but there is no such "conventional wisdom".


That would depend on which circles of expertise you investigate.

Many built-in DAC's are cheap, cheap, cheap.

Despite their low prices, they are often up to the task at hand. Here
are the measured performance specs for the DAC in a $39 DVD player - a
Apex AD 1201:

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.07, -0.05
Noise level, dB (A): -95.2
Dynamic range, dB (A): 95.0
THD, %: 0.0012
IMD, %: 0.002
Stereo crosstalk, dB:-92.9


A digital output going
to a competently designed DAC will probably sound noticeably better
than many all-in-one units.

Once performance achives levels that can now be achieved quite
inexpensively, there is no possible audible advantage to further
improvements, in the context of the true meaning of high fidelity.