noob DAC question

I use a Sonos myself for general background listening, but I reclock it with a Synchro-Mesh. It is very easy to use and the software works well, as long as you keep it up to date. The main limitation is that it only plays 44.1 files. It is one of the cheaper ways to get good audio, about $1K total.

I use USB for all of my 88.1-192 files, which are about half of them.

Sart- I don't understand why you are bringing the blu-ray player into the conversation. This is for playing disks and movies, nothing to do with computer audio.

The computer quality and particularly the power supply and the USB ports and topology all affect sound quality, but not as much as the interface that contains the MASTER CLOCK. This is the most important thing to get right. Here are some tips to get the optimum sound from a computer:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/recommended-systems

The problem with soundcards is they usually have cheap jittery master clocks and they are powered from a very poor computer power supply. I have had the very best ones here, (over $1K) and they need reclocking to sound decent. It is best to not use them and instead use a USB DAC or better yet a USB converter.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Every Bluray player I've seen can also play CDs and DVDs, so a Bluray player is a nice way to consolidate all of your shiny disc playback into one machine.

And if you can afford to get something like the Oppo BDP-103 ($499 new, $375+ used) you can then use the DACs in the Oppo to convert digital signals from your cable box or any other device which outputs a digital signal.

The Oppo also lets you stream music and videos from the web, making it a very cost-effective centerpiece for your system....

-RW-

lol - I'm too old school not to want a CD player. That's my starting point with the system. With this discussion, you've all been so kind as to open my eyes - I see what the future holds ultimately and I'll work gradually toward that goal. But I'm too obstinate not to start with the CD player and spread my wings from there.

As some others have mentioned, DSD downloads are becoming more popular. So it would be nice if the unit you gat can handle those. I believe that the Oppo BDP-103 will do this also...

-RW-

Oh yeah, one more thing, and I hope I'm not sounding like and Oppo shill (I'm just a *very* satisfied customer), but the BDP-103 will also accept input from a USB device - you can directly connect any of the USB drives that are now so affordable. I saw a 3TB drive on TigerDirect recently for about $90 - that's a whole lotta storage for not much money!

I have an Oppo BDP-93, the predecessor of the BDP-103, and it does a very good job playing back music and videos from any of my USB drives (I have 6 of them!! ). If your budget is up around $1,000 you could even step up to the BDP-105 which is supposed to have a better analog output section...

-RW-