Arcam avr-300 pre vs around $ 1000 standalone DAC

im confused. what are you going to use the DACs for ? for CD playback using a DVD player? What's your digital source?

i rip all my cd to pc hard drive in wav file, using foobar player ( asio output)thru Emu 1212m sound card ,and my amp is Jolida 302b( tube)
Another question,thou,how the Arcam compete with the Jplida in 2 channel music ?

now i see.i believe your Arcam AVR300 doesnt have a DAC and hence you need to get a stand alone DAC. its better to connect your computer to a DAC then to either your AVR300 or Jolida amp. the arcam AVR300 is said to have the same quality of the arcam A65+ in 2 channel music. listen to which sounds better to your taste : the arcam avr300 or the jolida amp. make sure that you press the direct button in your avr300.

I believe the Arcam AVR300 uses Wolfson 24/192 DACs.

Bbolival,How come an a/v receiver doesn't have a DAC ?many have more than 1, like the new top Denon,there're 18 in it!
Thanks Mdc23 for the DAC name ,I'll learn it out.
IMO ,The DAC chip itself is important, but the good sound need many other parts help, like the one in my Emu card , it's very high performance, but caps,opamps...is very cheap,and the sound is not so good( a bit thin and flat), however,it will beat any CDP around $500-700. Some guys at Head-fi.com mod the card with Blackgate caps,high-end opamps.., and they say it can compete with multi-grand CDP,but it's still 20-%30 behind the Benchmark!
Back to the topic,how good is the Arcam preout ?

isnt the chip in the arcam AVR300 meant for home theater and surround sound purposes? weren't you asking for 2 channel music?

dienggo, are we on the same page? i was talking about 2-channel DACs like what you find in a Bel Canto or in a dedicated CD player. My understanding is that the DACs in the Arcam receiver, although can be used for 2 channel music, were meant for home theater and surround sound applications. I once owned an Arcam AVR100 was also curious about whether it had a dedicated 2 channel DAC but if you read the reviews about the Arcam AVR300, 250, 200, 100 you get no information about it. When listening to 2 channel audio, the reviewers bypass the Arcam reciever's DACs nad used the DIRECT option and listen to it using the DACS of the CD Player they're using. As for the wolfson DAC, the current Arcam CD players use the wolfson chipset but I wouldn't know if the chipset inside your Arcam AVR300 is the same or is used in the same design in Arcam's CD Players.

Check out Moncrieff's slightly over-the-top AVR300 review here:

http://www.iar-80.com/page130.html