Anyone use a DAC

[taha]

I have found several DAC's to use between your computer and stereo, but unsure if they are worth it. They range from about $100 on up and you can use a few as headphone amps. Anyone have any thoughts on their use ?

 

[LG]

Depends on a few things Taha...how much do you listen to your stereo. Not to be insulting in anyway but the better quality gear you have the more of an impact a DAC will have.

I would get a modest one and see what you think a good store will let you play it for a couple weeks and evaluate it's performance. If you're not happy they should refund your money. There are plenty of good company's out there to choose from. I am considering a tube DAC or tube CD player as my next purchase...but that won't be for a while.

 

[taha]

Running Classe and Linn gear and thought about the Dragonfly or the NuForce DAC's, but not shure how good the DAC can make the music off the hard drive ???

 

[LG]

Linn is fantastic gear.

I am using an external sound card with this PC, nothing outrageous just a Soundblaster THX the size of a packet of smokes, and it's made a huge difference in quality when I play music from my HD's to my main stereo. It's got a modest DAC but I am impressed with it.

 

[taha]

Does it bring out good imaging or sound stage ? That's the one thing I heard they have problems with.

 

[LG]

^^It's hard to say that depends as much on your room, speaker placement as the signal quality...it's definitely made a huge improvement over the built in sound card on the motherboard.

I can say when I play my big FLAC files, 24/96 or 24/192's they sound spectacular...MP3's I don't bother with those.

I think considering the quality stereo you have you would notice a difference. I know if I bought one from any of the 3 good stores here and wasn't happy they'd give me my money back.

 

[2LITTLETIME]

Running Classe and Linn gear and thought about the Dragonfly or the NuForce DAC's, but not shure how good the DAC can make the music off the hard drive ???

The usb Dragonfly gets very good write ups.I would google it and check the forums for it
Dragonfly - Search.
^^^^^^^^^^click on this link ive just found

 

[LG]

I have looked at the USB DAC's before 2LT, while I'm no expert I would prefer a stand alone component. There are many good makes out there to choose from and they are not that expensive. Not the ones I'm interested in.

 

[taha]

I am considering a tube DAC or tube CD player as my next purchase...but that won't be for a while.

Interesting move, always been sorta scared of hybrid type equipment. CD was born all digital, but would love to hear what a good set of tubes would do for the CD output stage !

 

[LG]

Interesting move, always been sorta scared of hybrid type equipment. CD was born all digital, but would love to hear what a good set of tubes would do for the CD output stage !

I picked up a tube amp in January at a very good price Taha, before that I saw 2 really interesting DAC's, that are tubes as well. And a tube CD player is also something I might add eventually. Everyone notices a tangible "warming" when the digital is processed and the analog signal goes through a tube stage before the amplifier.

I am not talking about really expensive gear, there are good companies that make entry level and mid level equipment that caught my eye.