Digital Sources

Digital source components – the front end of a system for anything that isn’t spinning vinyl or rolling tape.

A music streamer pulls audio from a network or streaming service. A music server stores and serves your own library. A CD player reads physical discs. Whatever the source, a DAC converts its digital signal into the analogue signal your amplifier needs – often the single biggest factor in digital sound quality after the source itself. An ADC does the reverse, digitising analogue sources such as vinyl or tape.

Choose your digital source

Music Streamers

Pulls music from your network or a streaming service and outputs a digital, or analogue if it has a built-in DAC, signal – no physical media or local storage needed.

Shop music streamers

Music Servers

Stores your ripped or downloaded library locally and serves it to a streamer or DAC over your network – the digital equivalent of a record collection, minus the shelving.

Shop music servers

CD Players

Source switching and signal preparation, handed to a separate power amplifier – chosen to match its character and headroom.

Shop CD players

DACs

Converts a digital signal from any source – streamer, transport, computer – into the analogue signal your amplifier needs.

Shop DACs

ADCs

Converts an analogue signal into digital, for recording vinyl, tape or any other analogue source onto a computer or streaming platform.

Shop ADCs

Which type do you need?

If you already have a digital source you like and want better sound from it, a better DAC is usually the highest-leverage single upgrade, since it sits between every source and your amplifier. Building a system around streamed or networked music calls for a streamer first, with a separate DAC added later if you want to upgrade sound quality independently of the streaming platform. Ripping or digitising vinyl or tape needs an ADC, while a large local library you want to serve to multiple rooms or devices is better served by a music server. If you’re still buying CDs, the choice comes down to what you already own: a transport if you already have a DAC you like, a player if you don’t.