I wanted to bump this to the top as I am also interested in this. I currently have a DAC with 3 inputs, which I intentionally bought so I could have it hooked to a transport (in my case a DVD player) and later the Audiotron, or something like it.
My question, can a standard DAC (build for the CD format) perform D-to-A on a MP3 bitstream or does the input have to be from a .wav (which is PCM right?)? Obviously some discs are so poorly recorded that you won't lose much going with a high bitrate MP3 encryption. That would save HD space and make tags easier. But ultimately, I want my collect as .wav's with no losses.
My question, can a standard DAC (build for the CD format) perform D-to-A on a MP3 bitstream or does the input have to be from a .wav (which is PCM right?)? Obviously some discs are so poorly recorded that you won't lose much going with a high bitrate MP3 encryption. That would save HD space and make tags easier. But ultimately, I want my collect as .wav's with no losses.