Pure i-20 with or without outboard DAC

i have the i-20 in a system using a mbquart towers and a peachtree decco amp that has a well regarded built-in dac and the i-20 compares very well. i have also compared the i-20 with my musical fidelity v-dac in a emotiva/magnepan system with similar results. if you want good sound/value ratio for your money the i-20 should be fine. if you are wanting a really high end dac then there are lots of options. what is the rest of your system like and what are your expectations? i,m assuming your ipod is loaded with good quality music files?

with a system as good as yours a pure 1-20 is a must. i waited on a wadia for 3 years and i,m glad i did. the pure is just a great value. i have some dyi open baffles with a fatman tube ipod system in my garage and i a/b'd the fatman dock to the pure in the aux circuit and i will never listen to a ipod again in a home system w/o bypassing the ipod dac. i have a xpa-2 on magnepans in another room and love emotiva products so much i got their pre and cd too. how would you compare the sound quality between the music fi integrated and the upa-1s? i used to have a a-1 when it was british fidelity and loved it but man did it run hot. class a u know.

my emotiva system is dead quiet too. for what it is worth i a/b'd the pure dac with my music fidelity v-dac and in another system i have with a peachtree audio decco amp/dac. the pure dac was not as good with either of these options but made the pure an even better value as it was still really good. the british magazines have really loved the pure.