I connected the DEVIALET VIA THE DIALOG but wanted to introduce a CHORD DAVE into the mix alongside a MAC PRO , any ideas and what additional cables will i need , thanks in anticipation , mac
The Dave is a DAC and has no digital outputs. You’d need a digital to digital converter of some sort to connect a Mac to the Phantom (or Dialog as you’ve got one) as the Devialet has only digital inputs. If your Mac has an optical output (Toslink) you could connect that to the Phantom, but I guess there is only USB. A Mutec MC3+USB will do the conversion from USB to optical and also improve sound quality compared to a direct connection from a PC.
I agree that there’s no real place for a USB DAC (or any outboard DAC) in the Dialog–Phantom system. But isn’t the idea that you just hook up the Dialog to your WiFi network via Ethernet and then everything else is via WiFi?
(If you really want to do something with TOSlink, the current Mac Pro’s optical out is in the headphone out jack. You just need the appropriate TOSlink cable.)
So there is optical out on the Mac? Then it is rather easy, connect this to the optical of the Dialog. This will work fine. I’d still consider a re-clocker like the Mutec as that would most likely give better sound.
As this is the Roon forum I assumed the question was related to using Roon. Of course it is possible to use only wifi (or ethernet), but only with the Spark app. I know of no way to use Roon and Spark together. With Roon it’s only direct connections or RAAT endpoints.