What I want in a DAC

[peter]

This topic/threads/discussion is the most comprehensive i have seen on DAC. With that, as it appears a lot of technical effort is going to be applied to the DAC, my inputs follow:
There was a post that indicated ability to switch multiple inputs; ( pre-amp sourse selector). Given the ability to leverage software play lists etc,
i am not sure if this is beyong the call of duty.
Also, looking to the future; as it appears than the days remaining  of CD's is somewhat limited, whatever the DAC includes as functionality/interface should accommodate the growth or road where digital music is going;  itunes.

just some thoughts

[Tickwomp]

I hope the upcoming DAC is worth the wait!

My impatience got the best of me and I was couldn't wait to a music server -> DAC into my system.  The only time I actually handle CDs now is to rip them into storage.  I'm using an iPad and iTap VNC to run the Mac Mini headlessly and things couldn't be better/easier.  Like a super remote control accessing approx 1500 CDs worth of music.  My wife came in the other night and said that I was driving her crazy bouncing around and ask me to let something play for longer than a minute:-) 

Now that I've lived with my first outboard DAC for a while, I'd like something that would simply play materiel in it's native resolution without upsampling or at least have that option.  Need lots of input options too including USB, FW, SPDIF, etc...

Be nice to have the 'digital board' modularized and separated from the power and analog sections enough to allow future tweaking/upgrading. 

[Doc B.]

Guys we are making progress. Pretty soon we will be able to rename this thread "What you're gonna get in a DAC". We're in another one of those modes where it's all about budgeting the money to continue to develop the project. Things should be moving again soon. If anyone wants to help propel the project along, a few Paramount orders might help...I'm just sayin'.

[peter]

At this stage, i believe an important stage is go back to "requirements" vs. "functionality", and compare against what is perceived to be the competitive product(s) if any exist. What is more important here is leadership. There should be every attempt to review the "system" and somehow fortify leadership strength in that a competetive product for example , should not be able to  change a connector or cable type and then identify company and product leadership.  The "system" in its completed form should be what others try to achieve.

[Doc B.]

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.

[peter]

What i am saying is that;  there is and has been so much in this thread that i cannot actually identify all functionality that  readers and potential customers are requesting. It is a task beyond by ability  but certainly a task within your grasp to figure out what everyone is saying and where the product goes.

[Grainger49]

Peter,

The poster starting the thread is a customer.  Doc, Paul J. and John S. have been working on the Bottlehead design.  That is a different thread all together.  

No DAC on the market will include everything that is listed in this thread as what each poster wants.  

[Chris]

i would imagine the main goal is, to provide as much flexibility and future upgrade ability as can be reasonably achieved... and then to smoke anything, anywhere near its price with its sonic bodacity!!!!!!!!!!!

[tdogzthmn]

An optional wine chiller attachment would be well received as it combines two things many audiophiles enjoy. 

[Quiet_Storm]

I'm very interested in seeing how this one continues to progress. How did the Head-Fi meet go? Any impressions? I didn't see any Bottlehead DAC impressions in the Head-Fi threads.

[tdogzthmn]

I was able to heard the DAC at last weeks Head-Fi meet in NorCal.  It's really quite big and occupies two enclosures which are about the size of the SEX amp.  The sound was really great listening through the Smack and SEX, but it's hard to tell how much the DAC is adding to the sound when you can't directly compare it to another source.  I was also fortunate to meet the creator of the PCB (John) for the DAC and even see the next gen circuit board for the new iteration.  Really cool and unconventional things are in the works but it seemed like production version is still going to be another few months away.

[denti alligator]

I'm curious to hear it. My Juli@ sound card running with J.River Music Console sounds fantastic. I have it doing the DAC. I really can't complain about the sound. Someone on another forum said the Juli@'s internal DAC matched his Naim DAC. Can that be true? In any event, it would be great to hear what BH's DAC (or any DAC for that matter) does for my FLAC.

[BNAL]

I have been using a modded squeezebox2 for a about 6 years now and have been very happy and felt that it is a great interface for accessing music and to me it sounds better then using a CD player. At least the ones that I can afford. I have been on the fence about upgrading to something else waiting for the BH DAC. I want a DAC that is not limited by the USB interface, i.e. can play 24bit and files up to 192k hz. I have looked at the SB Touch in the past but held off because it only was only able to do 96K. Now there appears to be an app that allows it to stream up to 192K FLAC files via USB and S/PDIF. I'm thinking this is maybe the a very good option that has future potential with the BH DAC. Any thoughts from the forum?

[John Swenson]

The new applet for the Touch works very well. You will be able to use it to send up to 192 to the Bottlehead DAC via S/PDIF, either via coax or optical. The optical is a little iffy, the data rate is theoretically faster than what the optical can handle, but in reality if you use a fairly short good quality cable it should work. But if it doesn't, use coax, that WILL work.

The USB input that will be part of the Bottlehead DAC will only go up to 96KHz. This is primarily a space and time limitation, doing 192 takes a lot more hardware and we just don't have room on the board. In addition it will take a fair amount of work to get it working properly and I don't want to delay the release of the DAC just for that.

The external interface that WILL be a part of the DAC will allow us to add a 192 capable USB input at a later time, exactly how much later, who knows!

John S.

[grufti]

In my personal opinion 192k isn't all that important for playback at all. The people at Benchmark who build some fairly serious professional gear that can easily handle 192k data rates tend to agree and have written about it on their website.

High data rates are great for digital processing. Most of the math that gets used in studios - recording, mixing and mastering - works better at higher sample rates, because the audio frequencies that are being manipulated are nowhere near the sampling frequency. DAC's and ADC's on the other hand don't benefit much. 24/96 is plenty good enough. I often go with 24/48 even when I could just as easily use 24/96.