highdudgeon Wrote: > I'm wondering how many people have done careful listening comparing the > Squeezebox with and without a high-end external DAC? IE, is there much > benefit to be gained? Little? None at all?
I couldn't hear any difference at all between the Squeezebox straight-up and running through a Benchmark DAC-1, and ended up returning the DAC-1. That was on my main system, Parasound amplification to Paradigm Studio 100 speakers. I _think_ that I can tell a difference between it straight-up and running through the HeadRoom Micro DAC, but I wouldn't swear to that; I didn't do anything like a rigorous comparison, because I knew that I was keeping the Micro DAC no matter what (it has a USB input, and it's way way better than the sound card in my computer, so I use it to listen to music when at the computer) and didn't end up keeping it hooked up to the SB. Associated equipment on that was HeadRoom's Micro Amp driving HD-650 headphones. It's possible that my speaker system isn't good enough to reveal differences between the built-in and an external DAC, so if you've got a system that you've spent $20K on, you'll probably want to try it out anyway. But for the most part, I expect that differences between competent modern DACs are going to be very very subtle. At the very least, if you decide to try a DAC out, make sure you can return it. -- mkozlows ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mkozlows's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=62 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17948 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
