I have a large collection of Redbook CDs (also SACDs, but that's another matter). I play them on a universal disc player, running the digital signal into a Benchmark DAC3 via Toslink or coax.
I've also tried ripping them and playing them back off the hard drive of my MacBook Pro using the VOX player, also into the DAC3, but they don't sound as good this way. That's unfortunate, as I've also purchased and dowloaded hi res PCM files over the years (mostly of classical music), and streaming them from the hard drive is the only way I'm able to play them. I know I'm not getting the best possible SQ this way.
At one point I had the Audirvana player, which had Direct Mode, bypassing the OS X Core Audio driver. Files played back off the hard drive did sound better this way, but at some point, according to Audirvana, OS X no longer supported Direct Mode.
My question is, is the inferior sound quality I'm getting from the MacBook/VOX/DAC3 chain, as compared to the universal player/DAC3 chain, due to the Mac OS X Core Audio driver? And if so, is there anything I can do to bypass it? TIA!
I've also tried ripping them and playing them back off the hard drive of my MacBook Pro using the VOX player, also into the DAC3, but they don't sound as good this way. That's unfortunate, as I've also purchased and dowloaded hi res PCM files over the years (mostly of classical music), and streaming them from the hard drive is the only way I'm able to play them. I know I'm not getting the best possible SQ this way.
At one point I had the Audirvana player, which had Direct Mode, bypassing the OS X Core Audio driver. Files played back off the hard drive did sound better this way, but at some point, according to Audirvana, OS X no longer supported Direct Mode.
My question is, is the inferior sound quality I'm getting from the MacBook/VOX/DAC3 chain, as compared to the universal player/DAC3 chain, due to the Mac OS X Core Audio driver? And if so, is there anything I can do to bypass it? TIA!
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