Just dabbling with digital source, and at this stage using JRiver through Dell small form desk top (windows 7), Korg 100 Dac (UFO shaped version) 3 TB dac with flac and DSD files. Korg feeds pre amp. I have heard DACS ranging from R200 - R250k in different systems. Also heard built into pre / amplifier dacs ( Nu Prime, Devaliet etc). Never really did comparisons in my own system as things sound pretty OK on most music and my CD player better on some discs. My original question is related to hardware really and dacs in particular. My experience at a dac shootout was that the R250K dac sounded the best of the lot but did not sound R200K better than the R50K dac which really did not sound that much better than the R5k dac.
So what is the main variable here (with fdigital sources hi res music? Does a MAC / Macbook sound better than other computers when used as a source only? Are dacs the critical factor? Do cables feature at all? Is software crucial or the media player? Many questions but just wondered. Many variables of systems and rooms I am sure but the differences can be heard despite these.
Maybe reduce to one focus - do different dacs make a big difference and have dacs become the latest upgrade path?
So what is the main variable here (with fdigital sources hi res music? Does a MAC / Macbook sound better than other computers when used as a source only? Are dacs the critical factor? Do cables feature at all? Is software crucial or the media player? Many questions but just wondered. Many variables of systems and rooms I am sure but the differences can be heard despite these.
Maybe reduce to one focus - do different dacs make a big difference and have dacs become the latest upgrade path?
