Understanding the digital signal chain

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MartinAndersen

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Joined 2012
#1
I am having trouble wrapping my head around the digital signal chain and I hope someone can shed some light on it.

If I play a FLAC file in 24bit / 96khz from my macbook with digital out when do I have to make the signal analog?

Can I have an all digital signal chain if I use a digital amplifier?
 
#2
Sometimes these terms are misused/abused.
If you mean that the amplifier has a digital input, then the signal chain preceding can be all digital.
"Digital out" is an incomplete term to an extent, in the context that there has to be a common protocol among devices for intelligible transmission & reception.
My understanding is the signal can stay digital up to the power amp stage. The DAC must precede it.
 
#3
You need a DAC at some point, hence its name a digital to analog converter. The difference is where the DAC stage is located, it can be inside your computer (i.e. line and headphone outs), a dedicated external box connected via USB, or SPDIF coax and optical, or built into your amplifier which is common for home AV units. The last i assume is what you mean by "digital amplifier".
 
#5
sofaspud said:
Sometimes these terms are misused/abused.
Click to expand...
Especially, Class D does NOT mean digital, certainly not in the sense of a CD or a computer audio file. D was the "next letter" after A, B and C, and it's only "partly" digital" The switch output is either high or low (thus it may 'look like' digital in that it's either 1 or 0), and is switched well above the highest audio frequency, but the time that it is high or low is an analog value determined by the audio signal.

So, a Class D amplifier is really an analog-input amplifier.
 
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