dac and streamer or seperates

@jbuhl 

That would be a tempting combination, but the DAC is the old version.  They are selling the trade-ins when people buy the MkII.

@asmithkash 

I’m not familiar with the Krell, but it appears to be an integrated amp introduced around 2009.  You don’t have your system posted on your profile and I’m not clear on what piece of equipment has a built in streamer/DAC.  Am I looking at the wrong K300?  Were there modern streamers in 2009?  I’m guessing that I’m looking at the wrong K300.  The reason I was looking for your equipment was my concern that it is a challenge to get great streamer, DAC separates with great cables for $5000, so I was wondering what would happen if you bought a great $5K DAC, or streamer and upgrade the second component at a later date.  Would put a used Aurender, or used Holo May DAC, or similar DAC within your budget.

@russbutton

This is where it doesn’t make sense to me. If a DAC receives the exact same digital data from two different sources, then why would it then result in a different analog signal?

You might get a better understanding by reading about what one DAC manufacturer did to try to improve the analog output. This is a website for the distributor for Holo DACs. You want to scroll all the way down, past the prices and read the section titled: Some noted features:

DAC Design Used to Improve Digital to Analog Conversion

Perhaps I’m overly generalizing, but it is also very important for the source to have a very stable clock. This is where the better Aurender and other high end brands excel. For those that can afford it, very accurate external clocks and both source and DAC clock inputs theoretically provide the best environment for digital to analog conversion. I2s communication protocol provides another theoretically great way to put a system together. If your source has a very good clock, I2s can pass the clock to the DAC and provide much the same benefit as the external clock, but unfortunately, many I2s implementations don’t allow for a clock signal to pass on I2s. PS Audio would be a glaring example of this. Paul (PS Audio Owner, engineer and chief marketeer) relentlessly pushes I2s, but doesn’t design equipment that allows for the clock to pass from source to DAC.