# DM-608 w/ phone as hu



## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

My relevant setup is, My Note 10+ run by usb to a cheapo dac that pushes optical to my audiocontrol dm-608. My question is, does it really make any sense to upgrade the dac? It's pretty much acting as a pass through right? The audiocontrol has a decent dac built in? I'm just missing some volume with the setup. Don't really wanna go the android software route cause it all seems pretty sketch unless I root, which I don't wanna do with my 2 week old phone


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## 209555 (May 3, 2019)

The audiocontrol has an amazing DAC. Everything you need to know here:









DM-608 | AudioControl


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www.audiocontrol.com





With the information you have provided, I can only guess that you lack volume because you need more speakers than just two 6.5" coaxials.


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

Gen5.7Max said:


> The audiocontrol has an amazing DAC. Everything you need to know here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Funny.... The question I asked is if the DAC I'm using is just acting as a pass through being optical? Optical is a digital signal, correct? The comment about volume being lower is because when I was using my laptop with the same DAC the volume was higher than what I'm using now with my phone. My setup is: 2 10's in the hatch, 2 6.5 mid woofers in the front & rear doors. 2 Compression tweeters in the dash. 5 channel amp running 100 X 4 and 600 X 1. 2 channel amp running 180 X 2. The DM-608 for sound shaping


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## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

Get rid of the dac and just stream/wire directly to the dsp. The dsp still converts the signal to something it can alter then sends it to the amp. Set gains accordingly. Your adding an extra conversion.


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

Theslaking said:


> Get rid of the dac and just stream/wire directly to the dsp. The dsp still converts the signal to something it can alter then sends it to the amp. Set gains accordingly. Your adding an extra conversion.


I have no RCA outs on my HU. Using the high level inputs on the DSP works but is most definitely noticeably dirtier than my current setup. Can someone please answer my original question? The DAC has an optical output. Is The DAC just acting as a passthrough since optical is a digital signal? The DAC is the following if you wanna look it up.. 

Roll over image to zoom in


*Signstek HiFi USB to Coaxial S/PDIF Converter Convert Digital to Analogue Signal Mini USB DAC PCM*


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## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

Who said anything about rca's? Your question was answered. The audiocontrol has a pretty good dac and all things "convert" the signal. Some just leave it in the digital domain. 



slewin said:


> My relevant setup is, My Note 10+ run by usb to a cheapo dac


You didn't mention a headunit....

If no hu .....

I asked why not stream directly to the Audio control?


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

Theslaking said:


> Who said anything about rca's? Your question was answered. The audiocontrol has a pretty good dac and all things "convert" the signal. Some just leave it in the digital domain.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Good grief... just nevermind, I'll figure it out myself


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## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

I wasn't being a dick. I really believe your questions were answered. 



slewin said:


> My question is, does it really make any sense to upgrade the dac?





slewin said:


> The audiocontrol has a decent dac built in?


They were both answered with the same response by 5.7.



slewin said:


> It's pretty much acting as a pass through right


I answered that.

So what is it you don't know?

Why are you dismissing streaming directly to the dsp?


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

I dont want to use bluetooth to "stream" I want an as pure a signal as I can get. So far it's been from my phone with the dac through optical to the dsp. I'm bypassing my hu


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

And if y'all wondering I'm using tidal hifi


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

But honestly the question hasn't been answered


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

Does the dac I have convert to analog and then back to digital? Or does it keep it digital?


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## slewin (Feb 4, 2020)

You gave me an alternative to the problem. I already have a 100 of them


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## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

Remains digital.
Doesn't make sense to upgrade the dac(or even use it)

Tidal hifi is 16 bit/44.1 khz. APTX bluetooth can do that.

The audio control supports hi res.
So if your device supports APTX HD you could do better downloading flac and streaming directly to the dsp. That would be the highest rate.

Either way dac will convert once or the bluetooth will convert all in the digital domain. Your limit is music source , not bluetooth codec.


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## Petererc (Dec 28, 2016)

I thought the same thing and beat my head against the wall. That spdif is going to sound the best. A couple of dacs, hours of reading about dacs and streaming bluetooth from smartphone to dsp sounded much better than spdif. Yes the dac i used altered the signal. I tried to find a Spdif “passthrough” but didnt have much luck. I yanked out the tablet and out back in the 80prs. So streaming bluetooth over smartphone to DSP sounds the same to me as rca from hu. Spdif sounded the worst, so if you havent tried streaming BT then give it a shot. Then go out and try different DACS and if you di find one that spdif sounds better on please share the info, thats been my experience with it


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## Mikebiz23 (Jun 27, 2020)

The purpose of a DAC is to convert the digital signal to analog. I'm sure you know this. So you are sending a digital signal over usb then having it converted before it gets to your dsp. So your adding an extra process. That means your dsp has to convert it to digital again, process it and then back to analog. It's not acting as a pass through. Your adding another link in the chain. I have a dm810 and I run a fiio x5iii coax straight to the dsp. That way its digital all the way through from 1 source. That would be my suggestion. Get a fiio and wire straight into dsp.


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## Kasey'sq (Feb 22, 2021)

Theslaking said:


> Remains digital.
> Doesn't make sense to upgrade the dac(or even use it)
> 
> Tidal hifi is 16 bit/44.1 khz. APTX bluetooth can do that.
> ...


Well said, I've been using the dm-608 for a few months, it's really not bad for a sub $500 (when I purchased it) dsp. It does lack in a few areas but all around its really not a bad way to stream hifi via Bluetooth. It's convenient.


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## Old'sCool (May 16, 2021)

slewin said:


> Does the dac I have convert to analog and then back to digital? Or does it keep it digital?


I believe that DAC pass through is digital in/digital out. The signal is going to be downsampled by the DM 608, however.

This is the reason I bought an AC-BT24 bluetooth adapter.

My phone streams to my DM 810 via BT, and it's the identical sampling rate the DSP would downsample a toslink or SPDIF signal to. (24/48).

The DSP will accept up to 2496 via digital inputs, but per audiocontrol:


"The DM processors and DSP amplifiers can accept digital signals up to 24 bit/96 Khz. The actual processor runs at 24 bit/48 Khz."

I agree 100% though, the speaker-level inputs are useless, unless you're trying to use the stock head unit only.

I have a Windows tablet with an HDMI to SPDIF converter, and I can't hear a difference between that and the AC-BT24 via my Android. If anything, the BT stream from my LG ThinQ 8 is a little cleaner, IMO.

As for volume, do you have the ACR-3 volume knob installed?


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