!
-
sounddevisor
- Posts: 129
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:31 pm
Re: Do i need a DAC? It will make a difference to my SETUP !?
Honestly, given the gear you listed and the budget you're talking about for a DAC - there's no point.
A) The DAC in your TC Electronic sound card is probably as good (or better) than anything you're going to buy for $400.
B) Even if you had $1000-$2000 to budget for a DAC, you would probably get more improvement by putting that money into upgrading some other parts of your signal path. Not to dis your gear, but neither of the sets of monitors you list are what I would call high-end.
A good approach to prioritizing where you spend your gear money is to look at the ends of the chain, the transducers - that is, at one end the microphones which convert sound energy into electrical energy, and at the other end the speakers which convert electrical energy back into sound. You will get better results putting money into those parts of your signal path first.
I see from your other post that you are working on acoustic treatment for your room - that's a very smart move! I would hold off on even thinking about a DAC, instead spend the money (and time and effort) getting your room sounding good. Once you've done that, the next step (from a monitoring point of view) would be to spend real money to upgrade your speakers.
I would even recommend looking into a better monitor controller than the PreSonus before you spend money on a DAC.
Basically, you're using what I would call pro-sumer gear. Nothing wrong with that, you can get great results with what you have. But I think that until you have a much higher-end monitoring situation, you're not really going to get much improvement from a DAC.
A) The DAC in your TC Electronic sound card is probably as good (or better) than anything you're going to buy for $400.
B) Even if you had $1000-$2000 to budget for a DAC, you would probably get more improvement by putting that money into upgrading some other parts of your signal path. Not to dis your gear, but neither of the sets of monitors you list are what I would call high-end.
A good approach to prioritizing where you spend your gear money is to look at the ends of the chain, the transducers - that is, at one end the microphones which convert sound energy into electrical energy, and at the other end the speakers which convert electrical energy back into sound. You will get better results putting money into those parts of your signal path first.
I see from your other post that you are working on acoustic treatment for your room - that's a very smart move! I would hold off on even thinking about a DAC, instead spend the money (and time and effort) getting your room sounding good. Once you've done that, the next step (from a monitoring point of view) would be to spend real money to upgrade your speakers.
I would even recommend looking into a better monitor controller than the PreSonus before you spend money on a DAC.
Basically, you're using what I would call pro-sumer gear. Nothing wrong with that, you can get great results with what you have. But I think that until you have a much higher-end monitoring situation, you're not really going to get much improvement from a DAC.
Re: Do i need a DAC? It will make a difference to my SETUP !?
^ agreed.
i used to use a TC Konnekt 6. i recently replaced it with an Apogee Duet 2. that was my way of upgrading the audio to digital conversion.... but i'm not saying that you have to do that. i like(d) my TC a lot.
the most impressive bit of gear i've found for handling and improving audio is... by far... a good preamp. i don't mean an interface that has a good built in pre-amp... i mean a 'stand alone' i have no other reason to exist pre-amp...
i used to use a TC Konnekt 6. i recently replaced it with an Apogee Duet 2. that was my way of upgrading the audio to digital conversion.... but i'm not saying that you have to do that. i like(d) my TC a lot.
the most impressive bit of gear i've found for handling and improving audio is... by far... a good preamp. i don't mean an interface that has a good built in pre-amp... i mean a 'stand alone' i have no other reason to exist pre-amp...