connecting rega dac-r to pc optical

[Alboy1975]

I have just ordered a second hand rega dac-r.  This will replace my Cambridge Audio dacmagic 100.  I have chosen to upgrade for the following reasons:

1. I have not scratched my hifi itch in a while
2. the dacmagic has only 1 optical connection  (which is taken by tv)
3. the dac-r seems to get a good write up sub £500 (I did consider the m-dac, but seems to have a bewildering number of filtering options and has gotten average reviews)

Reviews i've seen regarding usb connectivity of the dac-r seem to be a bit meh.  I therefore would like to connect to my pc via optical s/pif.  My computer has the following motherboard:     https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-B450-F-GAMING/ .  This is where my question(s) lie:

1. how do I correctly connect using optical (do i activate onboard audio in bios and then output shows in control panel/sounds, allowing me to set as default)?
2. are there any additional things i need to do in windows to get best out of dac (Asio4all, wdm, etc)?
3. Does optical out bypass windows mixer (I want all processing done in dac, no premixing, bit-perfect)

I mainly use tidal (inc masters) for playback and have a small library of music files stored on a nas drive.  Weirdly, since ordering the dac-r, the wee dacmagic 100 is sounding better than it ever has, almost like it knows it's about to be replaced.

I expect delivery mid-week and any advice is appreciated. 

[Rorgash]

ok, first, optical sucks for high quality audio.

 

No second needed

[Alboy1975]

disagree

[Derkoli]

6 hours ago, Alboy1975 said:

I have just ordered a second hand rega dac-r.  This will replace my Cambridge Audio dacmagic 100.  I have chosen to upgrade for the following reasons:

1. I have not scratched my hifi itch in a while
2. the dacmagic has only 1 optical connection  (which is taken by tv)
3. the dac-r seems to get a good write up sub £500 (I did consider the m-dac, but seems to have a bewildering number of filtering options and has gotten average reviews)

Reviews i've seen regarding usb connectivity of the dac-r seem to be a bit meh.  I therefore would like to connect to my pc via optical s/pif.  My computer has the following motherboard:     https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-B450-F-GAMING/ .  This is where my question(s) lie:

1. how do I correctly connect using optical (do i activate onboard audio in bios and then output shows in control panel/sounds, allowing me to set as default)?
2. are there any additional things i need to do in windows to get best out of dac (Asio4all, wdm, etc)?
3. Does optical out bypass windows mixer (I want all processing done in dac, no premixing, bit-perfect)

I mainly use tidal (inc masters) for playback and have a small library of music files stored on a nas drive.  Weirdly, since ordering the dac-r, the wee dacmagic 100 is sounding better than it ever has, almost like it knows it's about to be replaced.

I expect delivery mid-week and any advice is appreciated. 

Just set the S/PDIF output to volume 100, then set Tidal to output to it exclusively. This will by-pass all the Windows crap.

 

After you tell Tidal to output to S/PDIF, then I would mute Windows, and set it to output to another output, even if its an HDMI output. I find that Windows raises the noise floor if you set it to output to your audio device/DAC. Window's also won't scare you by blurting sound's at you.

 

The better sound is probably place-bo affect. Most likely just your brain waiting to get better sound, so it think's it's hearing the better sound from your current DAC, not the new one.

 

ASIO & Bit-Perfect doesn't really make a difference. But if you really want to use it, The best way to listen to your local FLAC stuff is probably via Foobar2000, with ASIO4ALL output.

 

https://www.foobar2000.org/download

 

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio