Will a good standalone DAC still benefit the speakers with integrated DAC/DSP

[ba7777]

Hello everyone,

It's my first post here and I have a question for you guys.

As most of you might know already, there are some high quality all in one active speakers like Dutch & Dutch 8C, and some active speakers with DSP system around.

From the Technical Block Diagram of Neumann KH 750 DSP subwoofer, you can tell there is ADC and DAC processing for the analog input before the final analog output.



So is a standalone DAC with good measurement still necessary / good for sound quality of those spearkers or stereo systems with dsp processing mention above?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Purité Audio]

In terms of the 8Cs then a separate DAC will not improve the sound quality, I suppose if you wished to change the sound by adding a DAC with high distortion you could. I wouldn’t.
Keith

 

[GokieKS]

In terms of the 8Cs then a separate DAC will not improve the sound quality, I suppose if you wished to change the sound by adding a DAC with high distortion you could. I wouldn’t.
Keith

I think since the post specifically mentioned the analog inputs, it's a question of high performance DAC vs low(er) performance DAC going into the analog input, rather than separate DAC going into analog vs digital going into built-in DAC?

Assuming that's the correct interpretation of the question: if you're using the analog inputs, then you're always going to be limited by the weakest link in the signal chain. So if what you're feeding into the speakers is poor, no amount of converting it to digital and then running it through DSP processing will make it as good as if you fed it a high quality signal in the first place (especially since the high quality signal will also go through the same processing). But how much the ADC and DSP can compensate for a poorer input signal is a different question, and probably a hard one to answer due to the number of variables involved.

Just using the digital inputs if possible is probably always going to be the most ideal way though (and if you can afford the D&D 8Cs, you can probably make that work...)

 

[Purité Audio]

The analogue input= analogue signal, ie vinyl therefore no DAC involved, the ADC in the speaker would have to be of very high quality which in the 8Cs it is.
Keith

 

[ba7777]

Thank you guys for your input. I can not afford 8C though.

Most concern of mine should be the potential downgrade of a good seperate DAC's high quality analog signal done by the DSP processing.

So if I get it right, feeding digital signal directly into the speakers with built in DSP would be a better choice than feeding it a high quality analog signal.