There are DACs at the heart of almost every single piece of technology that you own around the house, apart from perhaps your fridge or your toaster. Even then, you might have one of those smart fridges or toasters that makes different, snazzy noises at you while your morning croissant bakes, or the lettuce is about to go out of date — in which case, a DAC really is in every piece of technology around you.
They’re relatively simple devices in concept, but they become extremely complicated when you start looking into how they work. Ostensibly, a DAC lives and dies by its ability to convert a digital sound signal (the kind that Spotify or Apple Music pumps out — they’re coming from a circuit board rather than a tape, after all) into an analog one that your headphones can run through some speakers in your ears. Music.
