Recommendations for choosing optical drives
Choosing the right optical drives is important to ensure the best possible sound quality in your home or music studio.
There are several factors to consider when choosing an optical drive, including:
- Number of Output Channels: The number of output channels of an optical drive indicates how many audio channels it can play simultaneously. Therefore, if you want to play multi-channel sound, such as 5.1 or 7.1 sound, you need an optical drive with a sufficient number of output channels.
- Bitstream rate: The bitstream rate indicates how much information the drive can process per second. The higher the bitrate, the better the sound quality.
- Format Support: The optical drive must be able to play all the audio formats you want to play. The most popular sound formats are WAV, FLAC and MP3.
- Built-in DAC: Some optical drives are equipped with a built-in DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) capable of converting a digital audio signal to an analog signal. If your sound system doesn't have a separate DAC, then you need an optical drive with a built-in DAC.