External DAC vs No External DAC

**rowen** · 05-18-2005, 06:44 AM

Just browsing over at www.caraudioaustralia.com.au forums and was reading up about a guy setting up a carputer in his bmw (here). He has opted to use a Precision Power external DAC in the setup and run digital out from his audigy to the DAC, through a master volume control and then to the amps.

Just wondering what are the benifit's of doing things this way over using the analogue out's of the sound card and connecting directly to the amps (or to the MVC and then the amps)?

One thing he did state is that he was building the system for SQ, would you get better sound by doing things like this?

I queried in his thread but he hasn't replied so I thought I would post here.

I was also speaking to a mate about it who reckons you would need to use line out filters between the sound card and the amp, but in the "how to connect an amp" howto's there is nothing about using a line out filter.

If anyone could shed some light for me, that'd be great!

**lerandell** · 05-18-2005, 11:20 AM

doing it that way would give you great sound quality. There are a few here on the board that have done this. One is using an alpine unit. I think there are still some draw backs to doing it this way if I remember correctly. Stuff like getting xmpcr audio to go through the PC in digital form for volume control and then to the DAC.

The following would be fine because they are already digital or support digital exstraction:
CD's
DVD's
mp3's
mpg's
avi's

These would have problems because they only have analog outputs:
FM Mouse
xmpcr

If I left anything out of either section please let me know and I will update it. Maybe we could start to work on ways to correct these problems.

I would LOVE to do mine this way but have not seen a way to make every thing work through it.
If anyone know how to do this let me know please!!!