Unneccesary analog to digital to analog?

[Neelz]

I have connected my Linn Sondek LP12 turntable via the Lindemann Limetree Phono to my KEF LS50 Wireless II speakers (aux input).

It feels unnecessary that the analog signal is converted to digital by the speakers’ internal DAC and then back to analog again. That can’t be beneficial for the sound, can it? I’m not an audio expert, so I’m curious to hear the experiences and opinions of the experts on this forum.

 

[voodooless]

That can’t be beneficial for the sound, can it?

It can! The LS50 uses DSP to optimize and filter the speaker, so the net is a positive impact on sound quality. Given that your source is a turn table, I wouldn’t worry either way, because that will be the bottleneck.

 

[sigbergaudio]

I have connected my Linn Sondek LP12 turntable via the Lindemann Limetree Phono to my KEF LS50 Wireless II speakers (aux input).

It feels unnecessary that the analog signal is converted to digital by the speakers’ internal DAC and then back to analog again. That can’t be beneficial for the sound, can it? I’m not an audio expert, so I’m curious to hear the experiences and opinions of the experts on this forum.

If it helps you sleep at night, try to think of it is a crossover, which is mostly what it is. The loss in sound quality from the AD/DA + DSP processing is typically not any worse than the loss of a traditional analog crossover filter.

If you look at a traditional analog crossover, and see what the sound has to go through there (teeny tiny wires of the crossover components, coils), that doesn't look great either.

 

[dedobot]

In the pure analog domain, to achieve the level of what yours KEFs DSP does, you have to invest x5 more money and lot of time/knowledge. And even then success is not certain.
Also, the analog signal will have to go through a lot more circuitry with passive or active components. Think about that when you're worried about ADA conversion

 

[Blumlein 88]

8th generation ADC/DAC loop vs the original.....can you hear it?

Download this zip file. It will unzip into a folder with three 30 second snippets of a Fiona Apple song. Two are the original digital file. One is an 8th generation loop thru DAC/ADC. Pick the odd file out on the poll...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Listen and choose the 8th generation digital copy.

Each of these zip files will open into three wav files. One is labeled Reference, one is A and one is B. These are 30 second snippets of full songs. The originals were from CD so all 44.1 khz and 16 bit. Either A or B has been thru 8 generations of DA to AD copying. The other is identical...

www.audiosciencereview.com

You can try these samples for yourself. Original digital files go thru 8 generations of DAC to ADC conversions. The files are there to download and you can see if you can hear which are the original files and which are 8th generation copies. Once you do I think you will no longer worry about one such extra conversion. The gear used was not exotic nor incredibly expensive.

 

[Mart68]

The owner of Linn was himself unable to spot when an A to D, D to A loop was added to the signal from his turntable. And that was thirty years ago when A to D wasn't as good as it is now.

So you've nothing to worry about, no way in the world will there be any audible degradation in the sound and it lets you EQ the signal from your turntable.

With a good deck like the one you have the limitation in sound quality is the vinyl records themselves. Properly engineered record decks got better than the format certainly by the end of the 1970s (Technics SP10) and arguably before that.

 

[dedobot]

By the way the OPs system is very aesthetic and clean , I like it .

 

[Matt_Holland]

It feels unnecessary that the analog signal is converted to digital by the speakers’ internal DAC and then back to analog again.

As others have said, the only way your speakers perform as they do is because the signals to each driver are filtered precisely using DSP.

You may also be surprised to know that most vinyl from late 70s on was pressed using a digital conversion to improve dynamic range. All the details are in this video:

 

[Neelz]

Wow, tnx for all the responses everybody . Super interesting.
I didn’t consider that the ‘traditional’ analog to analog crossover has its own challenges.
I can definitely sleep better now .

 

[Mnyb]

yes making the crossover basically software is a very good idea then there is one DAC+amp per driver

 

[Tell]

8th generation ADC/DAC loop vs the original.....can you hear it?

Download this zip file. It will unzip into a folder with three 30 second snippets of a Fiona Apple song. Two are the original digital file. One is an 8th generation loop thru DAC/ADC. Pick the odd file out on the poll...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Listen and choose the 8th generation digital copy.

Each of these zip files will open into three wav files. One is labeled Reference, one is A and one is B. These are 30 second snippets of full songs. The originals were from CD so all 44.1 khz and 16 bit. Either A or B has been thru 8 generations of DA to AD copying. The other is identical...

www.audiosciencereview.com

You can try these samples for yourself. Original digital files go thru 8 generations of DAC to ADC conversions. The files are there to download and you can see if you can hear which are the original files and which are 8th generation copies. Once you do I think you will no longer worry about one such extra conversion. The gear used was not exotic nor incredibly expensive.

What's the DAC/ADC in the 2016 version?

 

[Blumlein 88]

What's the DAC/ADC in the 2016 version?

DAC was a Tact RCS 2.0 which had room correction. I was using as a straight thru DAC. It was from 2002 or so.

The ADC was a Focusrite Forte which was something like $450 at the time as a two channel recording interface.

TacT Audio RCS 2.0 digital equalizer/preamplifier

I anticipated the installation of the TacT Audio RCS 2.0 room-correction processor with mixed emotions—I already liked my system and room, and such a device threatened to make all my studied efforts trivial. What if one might use any decent amps and speakers, cables that were merely conductive...

www.stereophile.com

Focusrite Forte

The Forte is Focusrite’s attempt to build the best compact USB audio interface possible. Have they hit this ambitious target?

www.soundonsound.com

 

[stoneeh]

Keeping the signal chain as short as possible is indeed on of the basic principles of high fidelity audio reproduction. Though, as has already been mentioned, a DSP does offer many advantages in getting a speaker to play as optimally as possible in your room.

 

[Faxe]

My LP12 is connected to my Lyngdorf TDAI 3400. So the signal from the LP12 is also converted to digital in the amplifier. The Linn Urika II phone stage is converting the signal to digital also

 

[Matt_Holland]

The Linn Urika II phone stage is converting the signal to digital also

imagine that sentence 25 years ago

 

[LTig]

My LP12/Ekos/AT33PTGII feeds a Cambridge Audio Duo connected to a Classé Sigma SSP mk2 which digitizes it to 96/24 for room correction. Sounds just great.