The other day I was reading through some content from HIDIZS about its AP80 Pro-X streaming music player and something dawned on me. It’s a two-way USB DAC. What the heck is a DAC? How is it any different from a portable music player? What do they actually do, and why would anyone want one?

It turns out you probably use a DAC every day — and I do, too. DAC stands for “Digital-to-Analog Converter.” It’s actually a component used in audio systems, from the old-school CD players to streaming music players, like what HIDIZS offers. A DAC will convert audio data into a usable analog stream or format. In other words, it makes digital data usable for an analog system like speakers or headphones. Back in the day, they weren’t standalone. They were built into devices such as a CD player or even your smartphone. As audio quality has improved significantly, we’ve seen the rise of dedicated DACs. Or, they’re a lot more common, anyway.

Analog devices need an analog waveform to receive and playback audio. Digital streams and content don’t come in such a format, at least not natively. Really, digital files are nothing more than 1s or 0s, as you likely know, readable by computers and digital devices. However, if you’re feeding that data into an audio playback device, it’s not in a readable format.

DACs have existed for a long time

While you may remember the days when you would load a physical CD into a player, or maybe you only remember MP3s and digital players, what you don’t realize is DACs existed back then, too. Most modern devices have DACs built-in, from smartphones and portable game consoles to laptops and beyond. But obviously, they’re designed to do a lot more than just audio playback; that’s more of a side task they handle. So, most of those devices might convert digital audio as needed but they don’t do it particularly well.

If you want something that has the best quality, or rather if you want lossless media with true-to-life sound, you need a separate DAC, designed to do one thing and one thing above all — deliver incredible audio. That’s before you take into consideration sample rates, bit depths, encoding and compression formats and all of the digital eccentricities.

Codecs, bitrates, and storage space, oh my!

Modern DACs take advantage of higher-quality codecs to produce pristine audio streams. AAC, for example, is a popular file format that supports higher bitrates and sample rates. That essentially means that if you have a capable audio player, you can listen or record at much higher qualities. AAC, in particular, is for lossy digital audio compression. But not all devices support the AAC audio codec. Sometimes even if they do support it, they don’t provide the best quality conversions.

It’s important to note here that the higher the quality, the bigger the file, meaning it takes up more storage, but also requires more resources to decode and play back the content. It’s a bit more complicated, but that’s also why dedicated DACs are coveted by audiophiles and purists. Because they’re not generalized devices, like a computer, made to do several things at once. Instead, they specialize, and can deliver some really, really good audio experiences.

At its most basic, a DAC converts or translates digital audio files into a usable analog format as accurately as possible to recreate the original sound recording.

So, is it a chip? A media player? A stereo system?

A DAC is really just a chip. The chip responsible for converting the audio signals. But the average person, professionals too even, wouldn’t just have a chip to use by itself. So, instead, the DAC chips are embedded into other devices, for various purposes.

Some DACs might plug into your headphones to act as a go-between for your audio devices and your main system, like your laptop or computer. Other DACs, like what HIDIZS specializes in, are also portable media players that do other things. For instance, the AP80 PRO-X I talked about in the intro plays lossless media, acts as a step counter, allows you to read e-books on the go, offers playlist synchronization, and a few other neat features. Above all, however, it’s meant to be used as your primary DAC.

The Chord Mojo 2, by comparison, is a simple device, with no display or touchscreen that acts as a portable DAC and headphone amplifier. Meanwhile, the McIntosh MDA200 Quad-Balanced DAC is best suited for TVs and surround audio systems.

Realistically, you can find a DAC for whatever audio purpose you need, whether that’s improving the digital output of content you’re watching on TV, music you’re listening to via headphones, or audio content creation on PC.

Of course, there are much better guides out there. This is merely meant to be a primer and a quick introduction to the wide world of DACs.