What is a DAC? - Explained

What is a DAC!?

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A DAC takes digital data and transforms it into an analog audio signal. Afterward, it sends that analog signal to an amplifier. When you hear digital recordings, you’re actually listening to an analog signal that was converted from digital by a DAC.

Today, recording engineers convert analog signals to a bitstream of numbers. That series of numbers is a digital audio signal. In order to listen to it, you need to convert it back to an analog signal.

That’s why we need DACs. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy digital audio’s portability and convenience.

The DAC converts a bit stream of ones and zeroes into analog signals. It doesn't always convert that bitstream to analog according to a consistent timing sequence. These are known as clocking errors. During playback, they reveal themselves as jitter.

Jitter during playback has a negative impact on fidelity. In layman's terms, your music just doesn't sound as good. It can lose that great sense of excitement and involvement you get at a live concert.

Internal DACs inside most devices aren't equipped to handle clocking errors very well, creating more jitter. On the other hand, most external, or outboard, DACs are equipped to mitigate these errors. As a result, they more effectively reassemble your music from the bitstream of ones and zeroes and with that, you’re getting a more consistent, jitter-free sound.