DAC advice

[bobbasrah]

Turning back to the original question rather than rattle any PC (either way) cages, most of what Welder says is true in relation to file based music, albeit that it is hard to relate to the format in the same way as Marco enjoys. Having been raised on LP, flicking through a CD booklet just doesn't feel quite the same. On a PC the relationship is virtual, not physical. However...
First, I would be more concerned with the quality of conversion to lossless or wav rather than mp3 et al. Apple and iTunes do not suit my requirements as such.
There is plenty of choice of DAC otherwise ranging from DIY to big bucks, but like all things audio in the commercial world, once you get past a certain price/performance point, the law of dimishing returns applies. You can always upgrade the DAC, but the improvement will depend on the quality of the stored file.

[John]

I enjoy both mediums My preference is still vinyl and not just because i am romantic but most of my music is file based as most of the albums I want I cannot get on vinyl
I enjoy both as I just love listening to music

[StanleyB]

Had it not been for vinyl, many of my DAC mods would probably never have been developed.

[lurcher]

Good point that Stanley, I hadn't thought of it before, but I think its possibly true for DAC's in general.

[Batty]

My main listening is done with a vinyl rig, but I do have CDs and Files, I use an old Pioneer DVD player a 676A as a transport and stream files from my NAS to SB Touch, I bought an Audio-GD NFB2 DAC for $450US plus post from china (another $50). I plug the DVDP in via the RCA and the SBT via the optical i/p using the selector on the DAC to switch sources. The DAC also has a USB input which I have not used. There is a choice of receiver chips but for an extra $22.50 you can have both, the DIR9001 only does 96K while the WM88xx allows 192.

The differences I have found are that the soundstage is much improve and I can hear more detail in the music than without the DAC. It takes about 30 mins from switch on to come on song, but it's worth the wait.

I still believe that my Viny rig sounds better but the digital is getting there.

Steve