DAC question

[92135011]

Are DACs limited to a certain number of formats or can they support any format as long as the transport can read them.

[Mike That Likes Music]

Actually, both transport and DAC have to specifically support the format. Many aftermarket DACs are built to "blanket" the formats by supporting everything up to a certain point of sampling and word rate. A red book (normal) CD signal has a 16 bit word legth/44.1khz sampling rate, and a regular DVD (not DVD-A) has a 24 bit word length/96khz sampling rate. So if a transport and DAC can support a DVD signal, they're automatically "retro-compatible" with the lower resolution CD signals. Just like all DVD players can play CDs. Flipping the tables and trying to send a DVD signal to a DAC that only takes 16/44.1 signals will produce absolutely nothing. Same goes for a CD transport that can't retrieve DVD signals, even if the DAC supports them.
As for hi-res...
DVD-A (24 bit word/192 khz sampling) and SACD (1 bit word/ 2.8million-something sampling)can only be converted inside their respective players at this point. DVD-A is really just a higher-resolution form of the technology used for regular DVDs and CDs, but copywriting technology prevents it from being sent out from a transport as a digital signal. So even if the "blanket" DACs are built with greater resolution capabilities, it doesn't matter. SACD works on a different type of digital encoding than any of these, so can't be covered by the "blanket" DACs. There are no aftermarket DACs for either DVD-A or SACD right now. Hope this helps.
Mike

[92135011]

Thanks mike
Thinking about getting a decent digital source for my new system...
You think SACD will fly? or is it like pogs, where they went out in less than a year

[Mike That Likes Music]

Thanks mike
Thinking about getting a decent digital source for my new system...
You think SACD will fly? or is it like pogs, where they went out in less than a year

If you're concerned about future obsolecence, the safe bet is to go with a "universal" disc player. I've got the Marantz DV6400, which plays just about every form of audio or visual format you can cram on a 5" disc, and does them all very well (IMO). It upsamples red book CD before converting it. Even if SACD or DVD-A go out in the next few years, I've still got a CD player I'm very happy with. It goes for around $500-600, but I've seen universals retailing for less than $200 (Pioneer). I'm not sure if the Pioneer upsamples.
One friendly bit of advice for shopping: look for a player that's going to do very well with the format you'll be using the most. I love the sound of my hi-res discs, but about 95% of my digital collection is still CD. So I shopped around for a player that sounded great with CD first and foremost, and everything else came into the equation afer that. And I'm very happy with my choice. Happy hunting.
Mike

[92135011]

another consideration...how much are SACDs anyways???
Cuz if it costs a lot, I would rather buy LPs. I deal in 2 channel anyways, so I would never be able to use SACD's multichannel capabilities. If I stick with RBCD only player, then I would buy all the soso albums in RBCD and get my favourite artists on LP (if possible)

[Mike That Likes Music]

another consideration...how much are SACDs anyways???
Cuz if it costs a lot, I would rather buy LPs. I deal in 2 channel anyways, so I would never be able to use SACD's multichannel capabilities. If I stick with RBCD only player, then I would buy all the soso albums in RBCD and get my favourite artists on LP (if possible)

SACDs are generally not much more expensive than good quality vinyl or CDs. If you're considering starting your collection by buying 100 at once, then yeah, that would cost you a bit more. But if you buy them individually over time, the cost shouldn't be much of a factor. One thing to consider is the used market. SACDs haven't been around long enough to really build up a good used market, unlike vinyl or CDs. So if you go used as often as I do, maybe SACD's not the way to go.
I'm a vinyl junkie too, but I choose compact discs for the most part these days. My reason behind this has very little to do with sound. I split my year between two different parts of the country, and my vinyl just doesn't travel that well. It's big and heavy and very senstive to environmental changes. I have a CD burner that I've used to transfer some vinyl to CD, but the sound just isn't the same. One of my other little weird factors is that I like having the album cover with me so I can do things like read the liner notes and look at the artwork. But that's just me.
I also deal in 2 channel. But I've been told that all multi-channel SACDs have a 2-channel mix. You may have seen my post asking about that. I don't own any M-C SACDs yet, but as long as there's still a good ol' stereo signal on 'em, I'll buy them.
Mike