2 DAC's in Signal Path

[c5corvette]

There has been a few recent threads regarding installing a stand alone DAC with Chromecast audio dongle. I installed a Topping D-30 with a CCA. It certainly improved SQ. Trying to gain understanding on the process of signal path going through the DAC on the CCA and then through though stand alone DAC. Is the signal "converted" twice, or is the CCA DAC disabled somehow?

Just curious.

 

[EngineerNate]

Your CCA is outputting digital spdif through the toslink optical connection built into the 3.5mm jack. It's a dual jack, analog (electrical) connection and digital optical.

When you hook up to the optical you're bypassing the dac in the CCA.

 

[northpaw]

Out of curiosity, did you have the CCA set for full dynamic range (in Settings, while in the Devices page of the Google Home app) when using it without the new DAC? I'm not surprised at all that you got improvement with the new DAC, just that the magnitude of that improvement would be all the more noticeable if the CCA was still in its default (limited dynamic range) mode. That setting makes no difference for the optical output you are using now, as it is "full dynamic range", regardless of the setting.

 

[c5corvette]

Out of curiosity, did you have the CCA set for full dynamic range (in Settings, while in the Devices page of the Google Home app) when using it without the new DAC? I'm not surprised at all that you got improvement with the new DAC, just that the magnitude of that improvement would be all the more noticeable if the CCA was still in its default (limited dynamic range) mode. That setting makes no difference for the optical output you are using now, as it is "full dynamic range", regardless of the setting.

Yes. I was using the CCA in the full dynamic mode.