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  3. 1099716230

DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac

I know this is impossible to quantify, but with a good stereo system (Cayin TA30 tube integrated amp & Green Mountain Audio Europa speakers), what's the magnitude of difference using the following dacs?

Airport Express (I already have the AX, and can connect it to the integrated amp with RCA's [analog])

Waveterminal U24: computer to USB to waveterminal to amp (waveterminal does the DA conversion)

Inexpensive DAC like ART DIO with waveterminal: computer to USB to waveterminal to ART DIO to amp (ART DIO does DA conversion)

Apogee mini-dac: computer to USB to mini-dac to amp

Other?

What's the best bang for the buck?
mschamberlin3865

Showing 2 responses by racerxnet

racerxnet
54 posts
 
I am in the process of setting up a database with Foobar and output from the PC to a Music Fidelity TriVista 21 DAC. I am feeding this to the Bryston Bp25 PreAmp and 4 7BST monoblocks to my Kappa 9's or RS1 B's. From the PC I also send a signal to the Electrhome 8500 CRT procector for 2 channel home theater. The sound is excellent as compared to using the analog signal from the onboard sound card. The TriVista DAC has had excellent reviews from many sources and am quite pleased so far. I've also tried this with my DVD player for the transport and the results were about the same.

I am wondering if the music might be better if I use a quality sound card?? Right now the output is from the Realtek 850 chipset with the latest drivers available to the DAC.

Any responses are appreciated.
racerxnet
54 posts
 
Audioengr:

I am using an external DAC. I bought the Music Fidelity TriVista 21 DAC for this purpose. I still need bit perfect output from the sound card at 44.1 Khz. I have reverse enginneered the driver for the Realtek 850 with IDA Pro so that I get the correct sample rate. It would have been easier to buy a new card, but would not be a challenge!

The DAC I bought was quite expensive at the time it was released. Sounds very good to me with my current set-up.

Mark
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