twochannel.ai
Learn · Digital

How a DAC works

  1. Digital source
  2. DAC
  3. Amplifier
  4. Speakers

Music in a file or a stream is a list of numbers, 44,100 of them a second for each channel of a CD. A DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) turns those numbers into the smooth electrical signal an amplifier can use, with a clock that keeps every sample evenly spaced; uneven timing is called jitter.

Most streamers and many integrated amplifiers have one built in, so a separate DAC is an upgrade or a choice, not a part every system needs. Its outputs are RCA sockets, and on many models XLR ones as well.

Fig 1 · Desktop DAC, cover off
Hover to open · point at a part

assembled

Digital in

Conversion

Box

A generic desktop DAC, not a product. Hover or tap a part, or a row in the list, and it lights in amber. The amber dash on the board is the signal's path from the USB socket to the outputs.