Stand alone dac vs built in dac what's the better

The biggest advantage to an outboard DAC is the delicate circuits are well away from the noisy transport mechanism. I purchased the best sounding player I could bring home and try regardless of price, but the sound was far more enchanting with a quality DAC.
Liz also has a good point, I also plug my I-Mac and video gear including Blue-Ray into the DAC.

Phasecorrect said,,, " At least in a cd based system... in which technology hit a ceiling years ago ". LOL, guess he hasn't tried a high end CD player made in the last few years. I have and there's been a world of improvements in the last three years.

Audiofreak, shouldn't you have said in your opinion, "A Linn DS unit will simply trash most CD players, I've heard the DS many times at a friends and even brought it home for a try. It wasn't even close to a mid priced CD player, very sterile sounding, in my opinion.
I 'm not sure why a hard drive music server was even brought into this post.