Do active speakers benefit from a quality DAC?

[Manhattan Project]

Hi,

I'm upgrading my 200 € active speakers to Genelec 8030's and I'm wondering if my Behringer U-Control UCA202 is going to end up being a bottleneck in terms of sound quality.

 

[Wombat]

A DAC benefits from quality active speakers, more so than the other way around. Adequate quality(sound-wise) in both is the answer. Put the money into the speakers.

 

[Manhattan Project]

A DAC benefits from quality active speakers, more so than the other way around. Adequate quality(sound-wise) in both is the answer. Put the money into the speakers.

So would you say that ~1000€ speakers sound just fine with a 25€ DAC?

EDIT: Also, one relevant detail to note is that the music is going to be coming from Spotify, so that might also be the bottleneck instead of the DA conversion.

 

[RayDunzl]

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html

 

[Wombat]

So would you say that ~1000€ speakers sound just fine with a 25€ DAC?

EDIT: Also, one relevant detail to note is that the music is going to be coming from Spotify, so that might also be the bottleneck instead of the DA conversion.

Relable cheap DAC reviews aplenty on ASR reviews. The source is rather irrelevant unless it demands specific processing capability.

 

[Manhattan Project]

Relable cheap DAC reviews aplenty on ASR reviews. The source is rather irrelevant unless it demands specific processing capability.

Sorry to ask stupid questions, but do you refer to the DAC or Spotify when you say "source"?

Basically I'm trying to find out if the Behringer UCA202 that I have right now will do the job or if there would be some benefit in terms of sound quality from upgrading to a better DAC (such as the Topping E30, which as far as I can tell received favorable reviews on this site).

My problem is that I have no idea if the DA conversion plays an important role or not.

 

[Wombat]

I mean the primary digital signal source, whether it be Spotify or other.

 

[somebodyelse]

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html

See also the UCA222 review here and at least the first few replies - it seems it depends on the vintage of the device. At some point Behringer went from using the PCM2902 from TI to a much cheaper 'equivalent' from CoolBits. The TI part measures well as in the nwavguy review while the CoolBits part has significantly poorer measurements as shown in the review here. They're easy to open to check which chip is inside.

 

[Manhattan Project]

See also the UCA222 review here and at least the first few replies - it seems it depends on the vintage of the device. At some point Behringer went from using the PCM2902 from TI to a much cheaper 'equivalent' from CoolBits. The TI part measures well as in the nwavguy review while the CoolBits part has significantly poorer measurements as shown in the review here. They're easy to open to check which chip is inside.

Oh, thank you very much, this was quite interesting. I looked inside and it turns out that mine has the TI part.

 

[twsecrest]

Hi,
I'm upgrading my 200 € active speakers to Genelec 8030's and I'm wondering if my Behringer U-Control UCA202 is going to end up being a bottleneck in terms of sound quality.

I would say to get something with a better DAC function, then the UCA202.
https://hifimediy.com/product-categ...e=140&q=/product-category/dacs/&orderby=price