Cheap DAC

LaVidaLoca

In my home audio computer my M-Audio soundcard is picking up quite a bit of noise from the computer - through when it was in my other computer it was relatively quiet.

So I presume the idea would be to have an external Digital to Analog Convertor.

Now, Im not interested in getting into fancy Apogees and all the rest, just a simple box to convert that audio to analog away from the computer.

What would be the cheapest and easiest solution for this?

Ive called all the hi-fi shops in Dublin, and most of their staff are mystified as to what a DAC even is, and why I should want one, surely a simple DAC should be easy to find for less than 100 quid nowadays no?

If not does anybody know any solutions like some cheap effects box that has a digital in and an analog out or something (Its S/PDIF). Im not looking for top-drawer quality here, just something less noisy than what I have.

Cheers.

madtheory

I do recall seeing these things very cheap five years ago, but a quick google and ebay search revealed nothing at the price you're looking for. A MIDIMan flying cow does DA and AD. Used, that might be within your budget.

You could try a DAT, DCC or MD recorder with S/Pdif in, keep it in record mode and use that as a converter. I have a Philips DCC that will do it, if you're interested.

I can't think of any effects units with S/Pdif in that would be within your budget either.

Economically I think you're probably better off selling the card you have and changing to a USB or Firewire box from Emu or M Audio again. This would also have the benefit of giving you much better converters than the card you have, and better than the old ones I suggested above.

PaulBrewer

LaVidaLoca wrote: »

In my home audio computer my M-Audio soundcard is picking up quite a bit of noise from the computer - through when it was in my other computer it was relatively quiet.

So I presume the idea would be to have an external Digital to Analog Convertor.

Now, Im not interested in getting into fancy Apogees and all the rest, just a simple box to convert that audio to analog away from the computer.

What would be the cheapest and easiest solution for this?

Ive called all the hi-fi shops in Dublin, and most of their staff are mystified as to what a DAC even is, and why I should want one, surely a simple DAC should be easy to find for less than 100 quid nowadays no?

If not does anybody know any solutions like some cheap effects box that has a digital in and an analog out or something (Its S/PDIF). Im not looking for top-drawer quality here, just something less noisy than what I have.

Cheers.

Rather than changing for something that probably isn't going to sound any better - why not try and find, and remove, the source of the noise ?
M-Audio would have a pretty good reputation so, unless it's an actual fault, you might be able to solve the problem at no expense.

LaVidaLoca

Its funny, I guess external DACs have gone out of fashion in the HiFi world - Maplins, Peats and Richer Sounds' guys didnt even know what they were!

Found a solution that'll do for the moment, an old minidisc player seperate that I had gathering dust, has a DA mode where you can just pass a SPIDF signal in to it and out the analog outputs. That'll do for now, even if the signal is going through the ATRAC compression on the MD player.

Yeah I dont know why its so noisy, Ive tried moving the car to different slots on the motherboard and it just picks up horrible noise from the components, screeching whirring when reading disk you name it.

Kintarō Hattori

LaVidaLoca wrote: »

Its funny, I guess external DACs have gone out of fashion in the HiFi world - Maplins, Peats and Richer Sounds' guys didnt even know what they were!

Perhaps you asked the computer guys rather than the Hi-Fi guys as it's not that difficult a question.

madtheory

It's a grounding and screening issue internal to the PC Paul. Generally those are very hard to diagnose and repair. I don't think the OP has any electronics experience? So as a solution it's not an option I think.

SO you tried my idea then. Glad it worked out. FYI the DAC is not including ATRAC because the encoding causes a significant delay.

kfoltman

madtheory wrote: »

It's a grounding and screening issue internal to the PC Paul. Generally those are very hard to diagnose and repair. I don't think the OP has any electronics experience? So as a solution it's not an option I think.

I have a PCI card with external breakout box that contains the converters. Isn't perfect, but gives a good tradeoff between latency and electrical noise. It can even use an external power supply!

SO you tried my idea then. Glad it worked out. FYI the DAC is not including ATRAC because the encoding causes a significant delay.

I agree.

I don't have any solid proof, but passing a digital signal through compression and decompression when in record mode would be utterly stupid, it would do nothing good but drain power and ruin sound quality. I'm 90% sure ATRAC is completely bypassed when you're using a minidisc this way, i.e. in recording mode with no media.

LaVidaLoca

I only use the PC for mixing, I record elsewhere, so latency doesnt bother me if there is any.

Apparently on the MD I have the digital signal does go through the ATRAC, but that doesnt bother me, as long as it sounds the same, to be able to make reasonable judgements on.