S4Per

And another q: is there a mobile, affordable DAC that has optical input and balanced or RCA output?

HIS4

Actually I haven't seen too many car audio DACs on the market for awhile. I remember Image Dynamics had one on the market and Zapco had one too. Those are the only 2 I can think of off the top of my head but I wouldn't call either of them affordable.

What are you trying to accomplish with the DAC? If your HU has optical output, it's probably not sending all sources via optical. Of the few units I know that has optical outputs (A few Alpines and Clarion), the only thing that is output via optical is CD. All other sources still get sent out via analog outputs.

Your other problem with an external DAC is volumer control. You'll need another volume control because your volume control from your head unit won't work anymore if you're only sending signal out via optical.

avincar

Yes, I cosign what was said above, and also, many HU companies have external processors with improved DACs.

I have an Alpine PRA-H400 NIB which takes analog AI-NET and Toslink Optical input, has 6 18-bit DACs and time correction internally with Hi/Mid/Lo or F/R/Sub digital crossovers. With compatible Ai-NET Alpine decks, the Alpine volume control works on the preamp in the PRA-H400.

If you are interested in the Zapco stuff, let me know...

S4Per

'been trying to get a hold of you ;-)

thanks,
Per

S4Per

i'm looking to get rid of my HU all together. I have a PC in the car and in my version 2 design, I'm looking to use just IT as the source, but want to eliminate all noise as quickly as possible (believe me, I've tried a lot of lot of things in terms of ground points, etc. but there's still some noise....I know - shocking, ins't it? ;-) ).

So, I thought going optical would be one way to leave any ground noise I'm getting from the PC (I'm 100% certain it's from the PC) behind. Hence, I'm looking for toslink to rca or in my wildest dreams - symbilink as i have zapco amps installed.

But - perhaps you bring up the stumbling block to all of this: volume control. I'd be screwed, wouldn't I be? Controlling volume from PC would not do anything, correct?

Thanks,
Per

HIS4

I wonder if your power supply may be the cause of your ground noise?

S4Per

..i got noise there, too. Some people have reported success in this area by grounding individual components also...motherboard, etc. I'm going to still give that a try so at least I've covered all of the bases. perhaps i'll be surprised and find root cause.

broke90

now that you're talking PC, is it the switch-mode power supply? That is a really good source of unwanted noise.

avincar

Got your email, will call tomorrow...

S4Per

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