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DACs: Airport Express vs waveterminal vs mini-dac

I know this is impossible to quantify, but with a good stereo system (Cayin TA30 tube integrated amp & Green Mountain Audio Europa speakers), what's the magnitude of difference using the following dacs?

Airport Express (I already have the AX, and can connect it to the integrated amp with RCA's [analog])

Waveterminal U24: computer to USB to waveterminal to amp (waveterminal does the DA conversion)

Inexpensive DAC like ART DIO with waveterminal: computer to USB to waveterminal to ART DIO to amp (ART DIO does DA conversion)

Apogee mini-dac: computer to USB to mini-dac to amp

Other?

What's the best bang for the buck?
mschamberlin3865
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Racerxnet - forget the sound card. Use an external converter with it's own power supply, or a USB DAC.
racerxnet
54 posts
 
Audioengr:

I am using an external DAC. I bought the Music Fidelity TriVista 21 DAC for this purpose. I still need bit perfect output from the sound card at 44.1 Khz. I have reverse enginneered the driver for the Realtek 850 with IDA Pro so that I get the correct sample rate. It would have been easier to buy a new card, but would not be a challenge!

The DAC I bought was quite expensive at the time it was released. Sounds very good to me with my current set-up.

Mark
highdudgeon
28 posts
 
I've played around with using the airport express and then a TOSlink to a dac (Musical Fidelity) and into the preamp. Preamp is GamuT, amps Electrocompaniet, speakers Harbeth Monitor 30s. I cannot tell the difference between this and a $2,000 cd player.
ecruz
402 posts
 
"I cannot tell the difference between this and a $2,000 cd player."

That's the question I've been trying to answer. Will a hard drive based system (hard drive, to Waveterminal, to quality DAC) sound as good or better than a quality disc player?
kenn39
75 posts
 
Too many variables here: is the standalone DAC better than the internal DAC of the CDP? Is the hard drive based system set up properly? Are the sound files on the hard drive ripped properly? Whether and how does the media player/OS re-mix the sound?

From those who did the comparison, as a transport, a properly set up hard drive based system can perform as well as a mega bucks transport. How the whole system sounds at the end depends on many other factors.
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