best DAC for PC server

I have been on a similar quest, and use the digital feed out of a Squeezebox, which is not too bad. Feeding it directly into a Northstar DAC, one can still hear the effects of poor jitter performance, such that a decent transport is definitely better. However when I put a Meridian 518 between the Squeezebox and the Northstar, the performance was better than using a good transport directly into the DAC.

So I don't have the answer to what DAC to use, but caution you that you may need to use some form of jitter reducing box.

Clearly if you want to just use a DAC one of the key issues is its ability to eliminate jitter as much as possible, otherwise the rest of the DAC and your system will be severely compromised. The Levinson FIFO system appears to be very good at that, and some of the pro DACs appear to be better than most consumer DACs at eliminating jitter. You might therefore look at a Lavry Gold. The Lavry's have excellent jitter removal and top class clocks.

I expect the DCS Elgar, or Delius could a good choice, but am concerned that they do seem to jump up a lot in quality when teamed with the Purcell upsampler or some other device, suggesting to me that the jitter rejection on their own may not be as good as you need.

Unfortunately for me I have not heard a Meitner.

USB 2 out to a dac like the Wavelength, Apogee, or TwinDac Plus. I'm sure there will be others soon. I can only comment on the TwinDac. It's good...how good I don't know. Better than my SCD777es for sure. I've read remarks from someone who unloaded their DCS stack for one. Look for remarks from RMAF, where the TwinDac was shown.

Try the Benchmark Dac-1. One of the best for low jitter.

Excellent DAC's include:

1) Perpetual P-3A
2) MSB gold
3) Electrocompaniet ECD-1
4) Benchmark DAC-1
None of these will deliver the magic stock, but modified, they are all world-class. The ECD-1 is probably the best stock. You could have a USB interface installed in any of them as well.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer