Hooking up 2ch balanced DSP to run Dirac - How to doubts?

[Mayank Shah]

I hope to start setting up my 2ch setup soon and as usual, when the time is close, a lot of silly doubts creep up. I have a TT, streamer, phono, DAC, pre and poweramp. Plan is to hook up the DSP DDRC22A in between the pre and power amp. DAC & Phono have XLR outs. Streamer has RCA outs. Preamp makes the RCA inputs also fully balanced and of course the preamp output, DSP input and DSP output to power amp are all XLR.

A laptop will be used to run Dirac sweeps. So, which would be the right way to hook it all up together?
1) Laptop > 3.5mm stereo x 2 RCA > preamp > DSP > Poweramp
2) Laptop > USB > DAC > Preamp > DSP > Poweramp (Dac & Preamp output level matching???) My thoughts are to keep the DAC volume at 0 db and then adjust the preamp levels going into the DSP)

Any pointers on the pros and cons in these 2 methods? Thanks.

 

[guddu478]

DSP will be converting Analog to Digital (ADC) to perform DSP/EQ and then will convert Digital to Analog (DAC) back, so essentially any super high end DAC before DSP is misspent.
May be a DSP with digital input is better way to go, unless you already have a DSP.

 

[Mayank Shah]

Yes, I am aware that the AD/DA conversion is the limitation here. I already have the DDRC22A. Working on a work around .