DAC on Cd Player or Pre-Amp

[toledoguy]

I've recently started rebuilding my system from scratch, it's been slow going as funds become available. Something has been bugging me for a while and I thought I'd ask my fellow knowledgeable forum members for help. How do you know whether the DAC on a given CD player or the Pre-amp should be used. As you all know virtually every modern CD player gives you the option of outputting a digital signal either by Optial of SPID, or analog. Every modern pre-amp has digital and analog inputs. How do you know which DAC is better? Is there some measurement to look for, a chip manufactuer that's better? Truthfully, I have no idea and was hoping for some insight.

Thanks

[Hdale85]

Research pretty much.

[GregLett]

You just have to listen, only then you will know which is better for you

[toledoguy]

I appreciate the fact that as with any audio it is a matter of personal preference. I guess my question was is there any guidelines to follow. For example, when purchasing a speaker we have all sorts of paramaters to follow such as RMS, and peak, and frequency response, and other such things. Is there anything like that to pay attention to in the DAC such that I know what one is better in any given combination?

[Kal Rubinson]

I appreciate the fact that as with any audio it is a matter of personal preference. I guess my question was is there any guidelines to follow. For example, when purchasing a speaker we have all sorts of paramaters to follow such as RMS, and peak, and frequency response, and other such things. Is there anything like that to pay attention to in the DAC such that I know what one is better in any given combination?

There are specs but, just like the ones you quote for speakers, they will not tell you much about how the unit will sound.

Kal