Is it work getting a DAC (and advice on what)

[Chrispy]

Because I know the Yamaha is multi-purpose and the DAC in it is very good, but not superior. I thought that ab independent DAC would do a better job by design.

A better job in what way?

 

[Chrispy]

I figured he was talking about the Polk LS/9, I was wrong. I'll delete my post

That was a top result when I searched but wasn't an exact match, don't know about the "model 9" someone else mentions.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Here's a link: Polk Model 9.

@mhardy6647 comments on the Polk 9 in the above link

 

[kemmler3D]

So even though all the Behringer does is pass on the signal it degrades it?

No, probably not.

As for the Yamaha, yeah I figured the DAC was good but could be improved upon.

There are probably DACs that will deliver 10-100x less noise and distortion than the Yamaha. Intuitively this sounds like you should be hearing massive improvements. However, DACs were already good by the late 1980s and they were really excellent by the mid-90s and beyond, in practical usage. Newer DACs have such good performance that it should be impossible, not just unlikely to hear any artifacts. But most decent DACs, even old ones, have performance that is totally transparent in normal usage. You almost definitely won't hear improvements by getting a better DAC, but you might achieve a little more peace of mind.

What we're talking about is like the difference between 99.99% purity and 99.999% purity. It only matters if you can taste the 0.01% impurity in the first place.

Aside from price, I wouldn’t even know where to begin in choosing one.

Quick rule of thumb, look for SINAD over 100 with the connections and price you want and you can't go far wrong.

As far as speakers, if you like what you've got I won't argue. However, the differences between speakers are vastly, vastly bigger than differences between DACs. Newer speakers (depending on your budget) could really improve your listening experience, a new DAC probably not. @staticV3 is on the money IMO.

 

[antcollinet]

So even though all the Behringer does is pass on the signal it degrades it?

No, it doesn't - I suspect @Karmacoma had not noticed you were digital out of the Behringer.

 

[antcollinet]

Because I know the Yamaha is multi-purpose and the DAC in it is very good, but not superior. I thought that ab independent DAC would do a better job by design.

We don't have measurements, but:

The DAC is

1 - Almost certainly fully transparent (better than human hearing) especially for real world listening with speakers.
2 - Almost certainly much better than the power amp section - IE it will be the power amp that sets the limit sound quality rather than the DAC. And even then - still not an audible limit.


From the specs:

 

[Karmacoma]

No, it doesn't - I suspect @Karmacoma had not noticed you were digital out of the Behringer.

No, it's just that I extrapolated the quality of his 2006 behringer soundcard based on other behringer gear measured on ASR. I expect jitter, noise and also maybe too that the conversion is not bit perfect, I find that plausible even if it's used as a USB/toslink converter. Am I wrong to find that plausible?

 

[kemmler3D]

No, it's just that I extrapolated the quality of his 2006 behringer soundcard based on other behringer gear measured on ASR. I expect jitter, noise and also maybe too that the conversion is not bit perfect, I find that plausible even if it's used as a USB/toslink converter. Am I wrong to find that plausible?

It's plausible but in terms of audibility still a real stretch IMO since there's no D/A step. I remember seeing a blind A/b/x test of cheap interface DACs of this era (contemporaneous) and the conclusion was that they were transparent across the board, even the cheap ones. I mean, have we ever seen a DAC with jitter bad enough to be easily audible in one of Amirs tests?

I'm no behringer fan in most ways, but even they probably can't screw up a basic toslink output that badly.

 

[Leporello]

Hi, welcome to ASR.
We don't have measurements for your interface, however it is very, very unlikely that a 2006 USB interface from Behringer doesn't degrade your sound, even if you use it as a USB/optical converter.

And why do you think this is unlikely? Do you have evidence to support your claim?

 

[anonyless]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out if a DAC would noticeably improve the fidelity of my system.
This is my current setup:

PC running Win 10 and Foobar -> USB Behringer UCA 202 -> Optical out to Yamaha RX-A740 -> Classic full size Polk 9 speakers (from the 1980s).

if you contemplate getting a DAC to improve the sound of 40 years old speakers, just get the SMSL SU1 for about 55$ on AE to replace the UC202 and test listen for yourself

 

[VMAT4]

And why do you think this is unlikely? Do you have evidence to support your claim?

Do you have evidence to the contrary? And, if so why not share it?

 

[Apesbrain]

@Mitch2000 , if you want to try something different for very little expense, consider replacing the Behringer with a Topping D10s ($87 on Amazon). It can do the USB-to-S/PDIF conversion as well as act as a traditional DAC with analog output.

 

[Karmacoma]

And why do you think this is unlikely? Do you have evidence to support your claim?

Not the sound, it was incorrect, but the signal yes, I extrapolated it basing it on the usually pretty poor quality of measurements of behringer digital gear, and here it's a soundcard from 2006. I actually said it would probably not be audible but it's certainly not good. Whatever the creator of the thread should invest all his money in a set of new loudspeakers anyway.

 

[VMAT4]

If the OP likes Polk, he may want to invest in a pair of R100 bookshelf speakers and a SVS SB 1000 Pro while following this thread.

 

[antcollinet]

Am I wrong to find that plausible?

Probably. - And on Toslink, noise just isn't a thing.

Jitter won't be an issue either - even if present - it will be trivially rejected by the downstream DAC.

And even if he was using analogue out - even poorly measuring old behringer products will be transparent for pretty much everyone in real world listening with speakers.

 

[Leporello]

Do you have evidence to the contrary? And, if so why not share it?

He made the claim. We are waiting for his supporting evidence.