Just a note of clarification; a standard DAC (internal or external) handles the conversion of a digital signal to an analogue one. A DAC does NOT handle the conversion of a digital format file (i.e. .wav, .flac, .acc, etc) to a digital signal - that is handled by a computer or other device such as sonos, squeezebox, etc.
aside from expensive, high-end "all-in-one" solutions (Sooloos, Nova Memory Player, etc), one device doesn't do all these tasks. You still need something to convert the digital file into a digital audio stream. The nuance in DACs right now is what type of digital input you use (USB, Optical, I2S, etc).
Getting both D/A conversion AND file conversion into one device - free of jitter and noise with a short signal path - is the holy grail of digital audio we are all looking for.
aside from expensive, high-end "all-in-one" solutions (Sooloos, Nova Memory Player, etc), one device doesn't do all these tasks. You still need something to convert the digital file into a digital audio stream. The nuance in DACs right now is what type of digital input you use (USB, Optical, I2S, etc).
Getting both D/A conversion AND file conversion into one device - free of jitter and noise with a short signal path - is the holy grail of digital audio we are all looking for.