Do I really need a DAC?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I found a 35 year old integrated amplifier (Technics V-95 with a super-cheesy 80s vintage look) at Goodwill for 10 bucks. It’s perfect for me because: 1. I like vinyl, 2. I appreciate a “loudness” control, and 3. I don’t need a remote control because I mainly use it mainly for TV sound and streaming services which each have remotes already. (If anybody DOES have a remote-control turntable, I’d appreciate photos.)

My question is" Will an aftermarket digital to analog converter improve anything at all or is the DAC in my Roku 3 just fine? Would appreciate any tips or recommendations

2

Put your money into your transducers.

In other words, what kind of speakers are you using?

3

BTW -
I once helped someone set up a Burson DAC on a Mac Mini.

With my headphones, a quick A/B test showed that it had minor sonic benefits over the built-in Mac audio, but not anywhere enough to make me want to spend what those things cost.

Maybe 30 years ago, when I had better hearing and more money to waste…

4

OTOH, what do you think about the inexpensive DACs? Like this FiiO version for $40 -

Or this Creative version for $50 -

Are the cheap ones even worth bothering with?

I have a Realtek onboard sound chip and also my nvidia 750ti GPU seems to have sound controls. Do you think a low-end DAC would be an improvemnt on that?

5

The only remote control turntable I’ve seen is a “wallbox” which connected to a jukebox. The jukebox played records automatically and you could select what to play via a wallbox mounted at the table in the drive-in restaurant you were eating at.

Seeburg Jukebox Wallbox

http://www.originaljukeboxcompany.nl/en_1jukeboxen1.html

6

I wandered through the Electronics Dept/ at a Target.

I saw what I had guessed were permanently dead: Record Players.

Cheap turntables on top of a box with an AM/FM radio on it.

Instead of honest plastic over pressboard, this had fake wood grain.

It looks like GoodWill may be making a killing on the large speakers which were dumped years ago.

I still have my 1968 vintage Sony Open Reel recorder - think the youngun’s will discover real tape?

7

I’d set aside some money to have that puppy re-capped. Electrolyte capacitors rarely last 30 years - the caps are cheap enough and it’s an easy project for someone with good soldering skills.