DAC for FLAC?

it sounds like you want to use a dac for a music server. if that is the case, any good external dac will do that. i don't use usb with my dacs, i use either a aes cable or coax cable coming from a jitter reduction device which is hooked up to my music server (wired or wireless). if you want to use a dac for sacd output, i think you are out of luck. as for price, there are quite a few dacs available that sound good from a few hundred $$$ to many thousands of $$$.

exactly. when lapaix described his thread above, it sounds like he is using a computer with itunes for some of his playback. the computer will read the digital file (apple lossless, mp3, etc..) and send the signal (in my case) the optical output of the macintosh in a digital stream that is compatible with any audio device, like a dac or even a receiver/preamp that has that input. same thing happens when a cd player reads a disc, it can read multiple different types of disc and it translates what is read to a standard digital output stream (sacd, dolby digital, dts, etc.. are different).