Is low cost DAC worth it?

Folks... I really, really appreciate the discussion.

One of the things I am wrestling with is I'm not as young as most of you an my hearing is not great, so at what point is spending money a waste.  

I love the journey you folks are willing to help me with.

And this may be my favorite response......

"Pretty soon you are going to hook up a decent streamer and DAC and hear why they are important. However if you don’t invest some money in both it will sound like a waste of money. So far you have been splashing around in the kiddy pool".

Love it!

I'm definitely going to try the SPDIF cable.    For the comparisons we were going back and forth between an NAD 2400 Amp and a McIntosh 225.  And for speakers we were switching between Lynnfield 975s and LaScala speakers.

I would like to stay at $500 or below for now.

Here is another way to consider my question.  Are low cost DACs (such as the Schiit) going to be any better than the DAC in the Apple Airport Express?

Thank you all for great information.   I did confirm tonight the Airport Express is limited to 16 bit, 44.1kHz stereo, which isn't bad, but like a couple of you, I'm thinking "old technology" so I'm going to start out with a Schiit DAC.    

I'm also very intrigued by the JDS Atom+............thinking about using it in my garage system, but it doesn't have an optical input, which I understand is needed to bypass the DAC in the AE.    

I'll report back once I have had a Schiit DAC to compare.

Okay folks,  got a Schiit Modius yesterday and did some "A/B" testing with a couple friends using a laptop as the music server.

Hooked up the DAC with an optical cable from a 2nd Airport Express, and then RCA cables to the amp.   That way we could go back and forth between the Schiit DAC and an Airport Express over wifi feeding the AMP.

After about an hour of listening & comparison no one could make out a discernible difference.

Next, thought maybe going through the Airport Express is a limiting factor.   So hooked up the Schiit DAC directly to the laptop via USB and then did the comparison with an Airport Express over wifi.    And once again no one could tell a difference.

So there are only two conclusions that can be made.    The signal from the laptop is so bad the Schiit DAC can't do anything with it.    Or the Airport Express DAC is pretty good as Ken Rockwall's testing indicated.

So, being part of the CLAC   (cant leave it alone club) I'm going to get a streamer to go directly to Qobuz/Tidal, etc. and see if that is the key.

"The “DAC” in the AE is a relative joke and a toy.  Period.  Stop trying to promote it as “decent” because it is not, and if you think it is you’ve absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.".................

Okay.... I'm not an expert.  And you might be right.....and Ken Rockwall and a few other that measured the output can be wrong.  And remember we are comparing low end equipment.   Anyone can have a great sounding system for thousands of dollars.  

Bottom line...... we still couldn't hear a difference.    

But there is good wisdom here and I'm going to keep plugging forward... especially with giving this DAC time to "burn in".

So I purchased the Schiit Bifrost DAC and feed it with the optical output from my Apple Airport Express. If it’s DAC is better than the Airport Express then we will hear the difference. I would say when doing A/B comparisons for a month there is a little improvement, but it is not substantial.

Then I switched to a Wiim Pro Plus and connected it to Qobuz for Hi Res files.   It sounds okay, but not any better than Apple music through the Schiit DAC. So next I’m going to try connecting the Wiim to the Schiit DAC to see if that provides anything different. But for now I can say the Wiim Pro Plus is not any better than an old Apple Airport Express DAC.