Do Active Bookshelf Speakers benefit from getting an External DAC/AMP

Koushiktamilmaran

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Does an active Bookshelf Speaker like Edifier 1855DB benefit from getting an external DAC like IFI Zen DAC V2 or Topping E30. I've heard that the ADC inside the Speakers will result in negligible effect.
And if feeding the DIGITAL signal directly to the speakers is the best option, then what are the ways to do it? ( Cheaper to most efficient )
 
Does an active Bookshelf Speaker like Edifier 1855DB benefit from getting an external DAC like IFI Zen DAC V2 or Topping E30. I've heard that the ADC inside the Speakers will result in negligible effect.
And if feeding the DIGITAL signal directly to the speakers is the best option, then what are the ways to do it? ( Cheaper to most efficient )
Active speakers ideally should be used the way they are with their inbuilt dac and amp. A simple spdif or toslink will be just fine.

If you have an option to bypass the internal dac of speaker and use an external dac with a built in preamp, plugging the analogue output of the dac to analogue inputs on the speaker that goes straight into the power amp of the speaker without any conversion then you may get an improvement.

Else it may just turn out to be a money in the sellers pocket.
 
Does an active Bookshelf Speaker like Edifier 1855DB benefit from getting an external DAC like IFI Zen DAC V2 or Topping E30. I've heard that the ADC inside the Speakers will result in negligible effect.
And if feeding the DIGITAL signal directly to the speakers is the best option, then what are the ways to do it? ( Cheaper to most efficient )
I can tell you from my experience with speakers such as the Swans/HiVi D1090 and Q Acoustics M20HD that external DACs make a negligible difference.

It does change the tone/timbre which you may or may not prefer but calling it an improvement is a hard sell.

DACs tried were the Ifi Zen DAC (v1), Chord Mojo, and RME ADI-2 DAC FS.

P.s. - I've found that external BT Adapters did make a significant difference with the Edifier 1280DBs which has atrocious Bluetooth implementation out of the box. I tried it with an el cheapo Logitech Bt Adapter which is 12 years old and only supports the SBC codec as opposed to so called Apt-X on the Edifier and the Logitech was head and shoulders above the Edifier. Tried it with a mildly more accomplished Bluetooth receiver in the Phoenix audio signature which can output through toslink into the toslink of the Edifier it absolutely destroyed the inbuilt receiver on the Edifier. Which indicates that while the DAC/DA conversion by the Edifier is fine, the Bluetooth module is pathetic.
 
And if feeding the DIGITAL signal directly to the speakers is the best option, then what are the ways to do it? ( Cheaper to most efficient )
you can use ordinary cd/dvd player with digital out. The perfomance depends on quality of DAC chip and related things whether in Bookshelf speaker or DVD player. Unfortunately most of the equipments will not have or would not share details about it. Best approach would be to minimize conversion DA/AD etc.
regards.
 
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