my understanding is that the dac in the touch already outputs 24/96 via the analog outputs. for pandora and internet radio that should sound fine. has he listened to it that way yet? if he were using lossless files, he may want to look into an external dac, but if his main use is pandora and internet radio, i would imagine the onboard dac should be sufficient. i've used it and thought it was very good. fyi, the touch only outputs to a dac via coax and optical, not via usb. i thought i read that there's a "jailbreak" of sorts for this which would also enable usb output, but would probably not be anything your father would be interested in looking into. and i may have misinterpreted what i heard. :) anyway, this is a long way of saying i don't ave ay specific recommendations. the emotiva xda-1 dac at $250 might fit the bill, but i've never heard it. a fellow i communicated with via audiogon recommended it to a friend who was very happy with it, though, and it might be just the thing for your father.
