Dynaudio Xeo 2 connected to PC (Do I need a DAC?)

[fas42]

5 hours ago, morespin said:

I connect my Mac Mini to Dynaudio Xeo 20. Using a direct mini toslink to optical into Xeo 20's, the sound is decent. When I put a Schitt Modius DAC in the middle some of the audio from Roon on Mac becomes a bit more...'clean'...especially with well recorded jazz etc. Audio is totally subjective but I've left Modius connected for this reason. This defies any logic because Xeos have DSP inside them already, so I cannot explain why this happens. 

 

This has been the story of digital playback ever since it started ... where there is the least length of the pathway, it becomes more critical to get that path, "exactly right" - having other hops on the way "rounds the edges" - which may, or may not, be acceptable ...

 

The trade-off is, that the extra circuitry means the SQ will be more generally acceptable, without going to the effort of really pushing the optimising of the whole chain; but the ultimate potential of the system will never be realised, because of the compromises added.

 

A car analogy could be appropriate 😉 - the vehicle with the most powerful engine may never win a race; because the fine tuning to make sure everything is exactly right, to balance that power, is not done - and it always has a problem when it competes.

[fas42]

6 hours ago, morespin said:

I think you explain it more accurately than I do :) All I know is between these two possible "chains"-- 

 

  1. Mac Mini --> Xeo 20  

 

  2. Mac Mini --> Modius --> Xeo 20 

 

Quote

...#1 should technically either be better with Xeo's innate DSP, or should not make much of a difference, but #2 is markedly better for my ears. I didn't realize this was "analogue"! 

 

With the Modius there's an analogue hop - the DAC analogue output being fed to an analogue input of the Xeo; so, an extra digital to analogue, followed by an analogue to digital conversion in the speakers, pair of steps.