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It's because the AT's DAC/amp that I use doesn't have usb support but I do have a USB DAC and it's proven more flaky. The advantage of an optical connection is
by nicolas_t 10y ago
It's because the AT's DAC/amp that I use doesn't have usb support but I do have a USB DAC and it's proven more flaky. The advantage of an optical connection is that it doesn't need drivers and so you only need to rely on the constructor being good with hardware and not on them being good on the software side of things (which most Japanese company cannot do).
In this case, I use a DAC combined with the Amp but honesty while I see the difference that an Amp brings, I don't see the difference of using a different DAC than apple's DAC (I've tried doing blind tests). So, I could see myself just using an headphone amp without using a DAC..
- DigitalJack 10y agoWhy doesn't an optical connection need drivers?
- Thimothy 10y agoIt needs drivers, they are just the same as the audio jack. At least in my computer (not apple), the same board that drives the audio jack is, at the same time, providing output for the optical plug without any special software. I've never used an external DAC, but it seems that the parent is weary of companies fucking it up with the usb drivers (or the firmware in the device) and introducing delays or artefacts in the audio stream. An optical to audio converter is easy, probably any third year EE could produce a working prototype.
- nicolas_t 10y agoOk, to be clearer, an optical connection uses the drivers from apple and will always work well whereas I've seen some usb dacs that used custom drivers and would fail (example AT-HA90USB)