If you’re using a DAC that is transparent, the only difference between analog and digital is interference, range of cables, and latency. Digital being immune to interference, having longer cable range in general, but having at least some small latency where analog does not.
I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say “streamers having different sound if using as a digital transport only”. Do you mean you’ve seen some streamer who switches between and they sound different? Or did you mean to say streams not streamers? Does “if using as a digital transport only” mean you’re asking about the pure difference between analog transport and digital transport, or is the word “as” not supposed to be there?
If hooked up to an external DAC
It doesn’t matter that the DAC is external.
and all it does is transporting 1s and 0s digitally,
That’s not what a DAC does. A DAC converts digital audio formats to analog audio waveforms.
how can that affect Soundstage,
Zero effect, just from “being digital” or “being a DAC”.
how punchy the bass is
Zero effect, just from “being digital” or “being a DAC”.
, etc?
DACs can occasionally drop a sample if clock rates are not aligned.
I have personally done loopback tests on my (designed to be transparent) hardware, where I recorded an output back into an input and compared the resulting samples, to find they were identical.
Now, some DACs are not transparent. The designer can choose to color the sound in some way they think will sound pleasant. There are also desirable features like loudness compensation that can be done at the last preamp stage, which sometimes is the DAC. Also, home theater receivers are DACs and do a ton of processing to adapt the surround arrangement of the content to the actual surround arrangement you have installed, for example “phantom center” to use front L/R in place of a missing center channel, stereo expansion like Dolby Surround, and DSP effects to add artificial room ambiance over music.
If you want to talk about that stuff though, you have to be more specific.
If you’re using a DAC that is transparent, the only difference between analog and digital is interference, range of cables, and latency. Digital being immune to interference, having longer cable range in general, but having at least some small latency where analog does not.
I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say “streamers having different sound if using as a digital transport only”. Do you mean you’ve seen some streamer who switches between and they sound different? Or did you mean to say streams not streamers? Does “if using as a digital transport only” mean you’re asking about the pure difference between analog transport and digital transport, or is the word “as” not supposed to be there?
It doesn’t matter that the DAC is external.
That’s not what a DAC does. A DAC converts digital audio formats to analog audio waveforms.
Zero effect, just from “being digital” or “being a DAC”.
Zero effect, just from “being digital” or “being a DAC”.
DACs can occasionally drop a sample if clock rates are not aligned.
I have personally done loopback tests on my (designed to be transparent) hardware, where I recorded an output back into an input and compared the resulting samples, to find they were identical.
Now, some DACs are not transparent. The designer can choose to color the sound in some way they think will sound pleasant. There are also desirable features like loudness compensation that can be done at the last preamp stage, which sometimes is the DAC. Also, home theater receivers are DACs and do a ton of processing to adapt the surround arrangement of the content to the actual surround arrangement you have installed, for example “phantom center” to use front L/R in place of a missing center channel, stereo expansion like Dolby Surround, and DSP effects to add artificial room ambiance over music.
If you want to talk about that stuff though, you have to be more specific.