Using Stan's DAC in my studio: D/A converter comparison

[foxysounds]

How does your mixing desk compares sound wise against a preamp? Have you got one of them with all the bells and whistles like tone controls etc?

Stan

I'm not sure what you're getting at here Stan. I was using the stereo line-level inputs of the mixing desk on channels without pre-amps.

This is the mixer I use.

Regards,

Simon.

[Junglist]

Thanks for the writeup Simon. I have found there is very little difference at all between different DACs using 16-bit audio, certainly the difference really is very significantly less than with changes in preamps, amps or especially speakers/headphones.

Did you use a 16-bit or 24-bit input to the DAC?

Matthew.

[foxysounds]

Hi Junglist,

Honestly I have no idea whether my audio card was sending 16 or 24 bit. I always work in 24bit but I suppose it's possible that it was getting truncated or dithered somewhere along the line. I'll have a look at the instruction manual for the Delta 1010 and see if it's possble to set the output bit rate.

I was surprised at the lack of difference because the TC-7520 made a significant difference in my hi-fi.

Simon.

[foxysounds]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you all on this ...

It turns out that the digital output of the audio card I use matches the bitrate of the software that's driving it (in this case Cubase). In Cubase I always work at 24 bit but my comleted projects have a dither plugin on the output bus to dither down to 16 bit. The incomplete ones don't.

To cut a long story short I was listening with a mixture of 16 and 24 bit sources.

So, Stan, How much would it cost me for the Caiman upgrades for my TC-7520 (including fitting)?

Simon.