DAC choice

[Juliemeikle]

I have a Wiim Pro Plus into a Roksan Attessa amp in my snug which has a Burr Brown DAC. I play the Wiim through Line Out connection as I prefer the sound using the Wiim DAC.
In the living room I have a Quad set up which has an ESS Sabre 32 9018 DAC with a Wiim Ultra. How close is the pre amp DAC to the Wiim Dac and which is supposed to be better? Not sure I can hear much difference, but am using a digital coax connection as it sounded slightly better….I think!
Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks

 

[hgo58]

I have a Wiim Pro Plus into a Roksan Attessa amp in my snug which has a Burr Brown DAC. I play the Wiim through Line Out connection as I prefer the sound using the Wiim DAC.
In the living room I have a Quad set up which has an ESS Sabre 32 9018 DAC with a Wiim Ultra. How close is the pre amp DAC to the Wiim Dac and which is supposed to be better? Not sure I can hear much difference, but am using a digital coax connection as it sounded slightly better….I think!
Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks

If you don't hear any difference I would go digital as long as possible and use optical connection if you can.

So optical output from WiiM into Quad.

There are no difference between optical and coaxial except that the optical isolate the connection electrically.

 

[adias]

....

There are no difference between optical and coaxial except that the optical isolate the connection electrically.

In theory that's correct. In practice there are often differences between SPDIF coax and Toslink, as Toslink goes over two EtoO and OtoE conversions.

 

[hgo58]

In theory that's correct. In practice there are often differences between SPDIF coax and Toslink, as Toslink goes over two and OtoE conversions.

What should cause that? As long as it's the same data reaching the DAC, there cannot be any difference. So you say the data is modified? Or are you referring to differences in jitter?

 

[adias]

What should cause that? As long as it's the same data reaching the DAC, there cannot be any difference. So you say the data is modified? Or are you referring to differences in jitter?

Any time there's a conversion, noise can intrude. Many cases where coax and toslink sound the same; many cases where others do not.