computer audio question

(This was with waveterminal u24,macbook.)

What I am asking is, what specs make a great c.audio setup?
Ie. DAC2 supposedly had great jitter rejection. It sounded like improved CD (vs vinyl)

The most important thing in ANY digital audio system, whether CD or computer is the source jitter. Make sure you have the lowest jitter source first. This means put your money into the best clock you can (inside the device), whether its a CD player or USB converter or USB DAC. The jitter of this clock is a function of the clock itsef as well as the power system powering the clock.

Second, DAC's can sound very different. I recommend avoiding hardware upsamplers so that you can hear the benefits of the low-jitter source you have painstakingly selected. Otherwise, all you are hearing is the jitter from the internal upsampling clock in the DAC. Few of these are decent IME, and I have modded a lot of DACs over the last 10 years, more than any other modder in the business.

Try to get a DAC with a discrete analog output stage with good drive and a volume control that allows you to drive amps directly. Avoiding a preamp can be a huge win in SQ.

Dont necessarily bite on the latest technology, such as 32/184 etc.. There are not tracks available, and even 10 years from now when they are, your favorite music will not be in this format. Also, the lastest DAC chip is not necessarily the best sounding. They may have slightly more detail rendered, but they also have the fatigue factor to go with it. some of the new technologies for D/A are not musicl IMO. Better to go with known great sounding chips, such as PCM1704, PCM179X, TDA1543, Analog devices and Some Wolfson chips.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Dear Steve N.-Excellent points. Newer NOT always better. How do you like the Burr Brown PCM 2702E?

"Newer NOT always better"
Okay, but in the Bel Canto series cited by the OP, newer e.one series DACs are definitely better in just about every meaningful respect, except perhaps cost.

"Better to go with known great sounding chips, such as PCM1704, PCM179X"
Interesting that Bel Canto's e.one DAC3 represents an upgrade to the PCM1792.

As a wise man once told me, in audio... "everything affects everything".

We have found that it is very easy to improve the sound quality with better cables (USB, Firewire, power cords, and of course interconnects from the DAC to the pre-amp), the DAC itself, music player software, and even the software that you use to rip the CD.

The old addage about "garbage in/garbage out" is certainly true with digital music servers. What goes into the DAC makes a huge impact on the sound quality that comes out. Certainly the better the DAC, the better the sound, but price is not always the best yardstick to measure performance by. We have heard several DACs that don't sound all that great, but carry a high price tag and we have also heard some that are very reasonably priced and sound great.

Steve Nugent makes some excellent points (as well as some excellent products) about jitter, digital volume controls, and using the right DAC chip, but the simple answer to your question is that better sound starts with the computer that is connected to your DAC.

Here are a few do's and don'ts.

Don't use USB for both the external hard drive and the DAC.
Don't use an internal SATA or an external eSATA drive to store your music on.
Do use a Firewire 800 external Hard Drive with an Oxford 93x or 94x chipset for music storage.
Do use a cut power Firewire cable.
Do use an asynchronous USB DAC and set the clock to the DAC.
Do use an SSD as the boot drive in your computer.
Do turn off or kill any and all processes that aren't absolutely necessary.
Don't use iTunes for ripping!!!
Do use a good quality USB cable from the computer to the DAC.
Do put at least 4 GB of RAM in your computer.

One of the biggest things that we have found is that when you get rid of the noise introduced by the switching power supplies (inside and outside the computer), the sound quality improves dramatically.

Kevin Burke
Mach2 Music