I think the SB3 DAC is really excellent. When running it with Senn HD600 headphones on an amp, it sounds... well, the best adjectives I've come up with are 'liquid' and 'floaty', which aren't very descriptive. :) I realize that the DAC in the SB3 is only about a $5 part, but it sounds VERY good to my ears.
As others are saying indirectly: most receivers redigitize an analog signal. So you're going A to D to A to D. This will never be BETTER than just sending a digital signal in the first place, and will usually be worse. A few models of receiver have the ability to switch off all digital everything and go pure analog. Onkyos, for instance, can do this. But at least in the case of the Onkyo, you lose your subwoofer, as the function that splits the bass signal is part of the DSP. If you have full-range speakers, pure analog off the SB3 should sound really fantastic. If you want to use a sub, and it's driven with a sub out signal from a receiver, you might as well just send a digital signal. That'll give the receiver's DSP and DACs the cleanest possible source to work with. -- Malor ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Malor's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1961 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35642 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
