Topic: Computer playback w/ outboard DA converter?

[BC]

Hey All,

I was wondering about playback from one's computer to an outboard DAC. Is it possible to play FLAC files and take the computer digi out to a DAC?

I was wondering about if one's soundcard would be outputting the same bitstream when playing FLAC vs raw WAV files, and if there would be any problem with taking the digital out from a computer for FLAC playback via an external DAC.

If it works, seems to imply that there is internal conversion on playback from FLAC to raw uncompressed wav for the digi out, wouldn't it? This seems like a lot of number crunching to do in real time playback.

Take care,
Ben

[fozzy]

Hey All,

I was wondering about playback from one's computer to an outboard DAC. Is it possible to play FLAC files and take the computer digi out to a DAC?

Yes, that is what i do

I was wondering about if one's soundcard would be outputting the same bitstream when playing FLAC vs raw WAV files, and if there would be any problem with taking the digital out from a computer for FLAC playback via an external DAC.

no issues, winamp does the decoding of the flac to PCM

If it works, seems to imply that there is internal conversion on playback from FLAC to raw uncompressed wav for the digi out, wouldn't it? This seems like a lot of number crunching to do in real time playback.


I run it on a PIII 700 w/ 512rams, generally from a DVD-r or across my 100mbit network and I have zero issues.  I make a little autorun script that loads the playlist into winamp.

flac > winamp > audiofile 2496 > lucid DAC9624 > amp > speakers > ears

[BC]

Do 24 bit FLAC files play ok?

[dnsacks]

ben:

24 bit/96k files playback just fine for me flac>foobar2000>chaintech av-710 soundcard ($25)>optical spdif>dac

question for those using an audiophile 2496 for digital playback -- will the audiophile automatically switch sample rates on playback, or does that need to be manually specified.

[fozzy]

24bit is fine

The audiophile will switch automatically.  From time to time i need to close all audio/dvd apps if the lucid doesn't pick up the right sample rate, with only one audio app it always syncs imediately.

[shruggy1987]

using my M-Audio FW 410 and my digital out to my stereo, I am able to get playback on 64/192 tracks that I've upsampled for editing in Sound Forge. 

Also, the on the fly encoding of flac > PCM is a really simple equation that requires very little processing power, the only issue being the variable bitrate of FLAC.