Hey I've Moved

Shaphan's Blog

Guess what! Shaphan Sylvester's AV blog has moved to a new location. It's the same great content with a great new look! Check it out at http://www.ssaudiovideo.com/blog.

Sabotaging Your Connectivity

 

I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a home with the owner complaining about dropping network and slow Internet speeds just to look into there closet and find a nest of wires that only a rat could appreciate. Or my favorite is when they shove the wireless router between the filing cabinet and their computer and wonder why they can't get a signal in the next room.

Let's Dance!

 

 

I was working this past weekend at the home of a retired couple who had recently down sized in house due to their failing health. They moved from a nice three story home which they had built some years ago to a modest house on the other side of town. A number of remodels had to be done to open the floor plan and incorporate some of the niceties they were use to. After they were able to move in I was asked to come in and help with their electronics. It was a pretty simple job of connecting some existing speakers throughout the house and installing volume control knobs so they could control the music easily from the room they were in.

Deck the Halls, the TV Falls

 

It is the season for buying, giving and getting gifts. And if you’re like many people, there could be big fancy new electronic toys sitting under the tree come Christmas morning – maybe even a new flat screen!

Solution Based Technology

 

There is a nifty little device called a DAC that has been around for a while but managed to remain under the radar to most people. DAC stands for Digital to Analog Converter and is for doing just that, converting digital audio signals into an analog format. There are many different DACs available and in years past most of these devices were geared towards and marketed to the guy with a very high end system or the audio enthusiast with a large collection of digital music.

As you can probably see, the reason why DACs have been relatively unnoticed is that most people aren’t prepared to buy the really high end system, and true audio enthusiasts are not going to have a large collection of music on their computers. So this eccentric little device sat there on the shelf for years with electronics nerds like me looking at it and saying, “Oh, I want one of those, but I what would I do with it?”

Well, I’m proud to say that I have recently purchased my very first DAC for personal use. I have an older Denon stereo receiver driving some speakers in my garage, kitchen and (recently added) back patio. It has a number of analog audio inputs as well as a radio tuner, but no digital inputs. I use it to play music through the house but I could only get audio from my Blu ray player, the radio or my iPhone if I wanted to leave it plugged in. All the other electronics I have in my media arsenal were confined to the living room because they only support digital audio out with no RCA jacks to be found. Surprisingly this is becoming the norm for new gadgets rather than the exception.

What was the solution to my problem? A DAC. The little digital to analog converter I purchased was not boasting of “High Fidelity”, it didn’t have tube circuitry, it wasn’t as large as a house and, in fact, it didn’t even do anything else. It was simply a DAC. It was a solution for exactly what I needed. DACs are making a transition from the another-device-to-have-in-your-rack category to a nice little niche that provides a solution to some of our connectivity woes.

If you are going to make good use of new technology with High Def sound and streaming boxes you are faced with a problem.  You can upgrade your whole system (it might be a good excuse to do it) or you could invest in a little solution called a DAC and listen to it all come together seamlessly.