My experience is that the better the source fed to the DAC, the better it will sound. For instance, a high quality USB to SPDIF converter (Empirical, Audiophilleo, Berkeley, Wavelength) can make even a modest DAC comparable to some of the more expensive ones. I've heard the difference this can make.
It also tends to improve the sound of more hi-end DACs, even those that supposedly have quality USB implementations. But here the improvement tends to be less noticeable. (Note: By "DAC", I'm referring to the whole box, not just the dac chip.) My conclusion from this is that most bang from the buck is obtained by getting a good mid level DAC and putting some money into a clean, low jitter source. More money on an uber DAC might help, but isn't the best in terms of sound for the dollar. -- firedog GIK Acoustics Room Treatments. Tranquil PC fanless server running Vortexbox OS; SB Touch slaved to Empirical Audio Pace Car; MF X-DAC-V3, MF X-150 as pre-amp, Grant Fidelity B-283MKII buffer>ClassDaudio SDS-470 amp; Devore Gibbon Super 8 Speakers; Dual 506 + Ortofon M20 (occasional use); sometimes use PC with M-Audio 192 as digital source. SB Boom in second room. Arcam CD82 which I don't use anymore, even though it's a very good player. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ firedog's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11550 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93317 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
