DACs & Streaming

This is the hub where we are going to spend most of our time telling you that you probably do not need what it sells. That is not modesty — it is what the published measurements say, and pretending otherwise would make us worse than useless.

What a DAC does

A digital-to-analogue converter turns a list of numbers into a voltage. A CD stores 44,100 numbers per second per channel, each describing where a speaker cone should be at that instant. A speaker cannot read numbers; it responds to voltage. The DAC bridges that. The full explanation is here.

You already own several. There is one in your phone, your laptop, your TV, and — if it has optical or coaxial inputs — your amplifier. Buying a separate DAC replaces the one you have rather than adding a capability.

The uncomfortable numbers

Here is what the DACs we recommend publish, from their own spec sheets:

• Topping E30 II — THD+N below 0.00015%, signal-to-noise 123 dB
• SMSL SU-1 — THD+N 0.00013%, signal-to-noise 121 dB
• Schiit Modi 5 — THD+N 0.0003%, signal-to-noise 118 dB
• FiiO K7 — line-out THD+N below 0.0005%, signal-to-noise 116 dB or better

For scale: a 16-bit CD has about 96 dB of theoretical dynamic range. A quiet domestic room has a noise floor around 30 dB SPL. These converters are, on their own published measurements, more transparent than anything you will play through them and more transparent than the room you will play it in.

So the honest position is that if you already have a working DAC, a better one will probably not change what you hear. We cannot state that as certainty — we have not run listening tests and we do not publish verdicts we have not earned. But the measurements do not predict a difference, and we would rather say so before you spend $200 than after.

When a separate DAC genuinely is the right buy

Four cases, and notice that none of them is “it will sound better”:

You have no real DAC in the chain — a laptop headphone jack feeding an amplifier, say. Then you are using whatever was cheapest to fit, sharing a chassis with a lot of electrical noise.

You need an input you do not have.Your amplifier has optical, your source is USB. This is a plumbing problem and a DAC is a plumbing fix. Watch the details: the iFi ZEN DAC 3 is USB only, so it cannot take a TV’s optical output at all.

You want a headphone amplifier too. The FiiO K7 publishes ≥ 2,000 mW into 32 ohms from its balanced output using THX AAA modules. Your laptop publishes nothing and delivers less.

You want to feed a power amp or powered speakers directly. A DAC with a variable output can act as a preamp and remove a box. The Topping E30 II, FiiO K7 and K11 and iFi ZEN DAC 3 all have this; the Schiit Modi 5 and SMSL SU-1 are fixed-output and need a volume control after them.

So what should decide it?

Sockets and features, not measurements. Do you need a headphone amp? Do you need optical as well as USB? Do you need a volume control? Those are decisions you can get wrong, and they are what our roundup is actually organised around.

If you are trying to work out whether your problem is a DAC problem or an amplifier problem — they are consecutive steps in the chain, not alternatives — that comparison is here. The short version: if your speakers make no sound at all, you need an amplifier.

A note on searching for this

Search “what is a DAC” and you will get dachshunds and US immigration policy. Add “audio”. This is not a joke at your expense — it is genuinely why our explainer is titled the way it is.

What we would skip

Buying a DAC you already own. Check the back of your amplifier first: if it has an optical or coaxial input, it contains a converter, and an external one does not stack — you are choosing one over the other. It is a ten-second check that saves a $200 purchase surprisingly often, and no page selling DACs is going to suggest it to you.

We would also skip paying for DSD support you will never use, and paying for a headphone amplifier if you do not own headphones. Both are common, and both are just money.