First Steps into Computer Audio

So each of those four DACs you've tried left you with a strong preference for a standalone player, and not liking USB DACs in general (I'm not sure I'm interpreting you correctly in that - forgive me if not)? Of those you noted I've only heard the Benchmark, which, as I mentioned, I did not like (found the highs ever strident - but same via a transport), so I could understand your not liking it. I've also heard the Bel Canto, though not in my system. The Bel Canto sounded great in the TAD room at RMAF '07 fwiw and to my ears, and again at CES recently in the Bel Canto room. I've not heard the other two. You sure seem to have liked the Ultra-fi iRoc USB DAC. From your ad:

Honestly, I would call it the most musical component I can remember owning -- by which I mean that it extracts the musical line in a compelling fashion from everything you play.

If you're ever up in the Seattle area you'd be most welcome to come over and hear the TP in my modest system. Ping me through A'gon for my contact info.

For the last several months I have been reading this Forum as well as a number of other PC audio forums. I could be wrong, but the consensus seems to be that the best PC to DAC connections are as follows (in descending order);
1. I2S
2. Firewire
3. USB ala something on the order of Empirical, Wavelenght, Weiss, et. al.
4. USB into an affordable DAC
5. coax or optical from internal soundcard to DAC

But, there are other considerations. Downloading one of the free media players, like Foobar, Media Monkey or JRiver Jukebox. And for Windows XP, downloading the free ASIO4ALL driver to avoid the Windows KMixer.

As far as budget would like to stay in the $300 range or under for DAC and our sound card if not USB DAC.

S

Tok20000

Please tell me how you rip 16/44.1 CDs to a 24/96 format?

or anyone else for that matter.

et al... I'm not so sure the inference that USB sucks is either truthful, or appropriate.

I say this only becuase what I'm getting via a USB DAC sounds better than what I was getting from my CDP via the same DAC using coax.

There are indeed other factors aside from just the interface, I suspect.

I keep hearing folks allude to fire wire, & I2S. i DON'T SEE MUCH BY WAY OF AFFORDABLE PATHS THERE THOUGH. i2s, ESPECIALLY. a $1,000 for the gizmo needed to get the info to a I2S DAC? Then there's the I2S DAC costs. how much is a decent one of those going for lately?

I'm pretty well pleased with my BC DAC3. Either way... coax or USB. Even it's optical interface isn't bad. I spent some hours last night using just that link and had a very good time with it using my mega changer as a source. So in essence I was using a $300 CDP, the BC DAC3, a $10 fiber optics cable, some HT Magic II rca LINKS OFF OF IT TO AN ONKYO 805, then out via Audio Art ICS to Dodd mono blocks & sonata IIIs & Velodyne DD15.

No getting around it, it was fun. Fun to me is being able to listen without the idea popping up 'something isn't right here', for extended periods. When I can just keep playing till the wee hours of the night, I'd say I'm enjoying what I'm getting.

.... using the laptop via USB into that same deal is noticeably better.

... better too is using my preamp and better ICs & pcs.

.... better still is using this last path with J river MC, and the Vista 32 laptop on it's DC power supply sitting atop a small Ebony folding table.

...yet one more level up is using this USB driver:

http://www.usb-audio.com/download.html

$70.

Ripping with error control is yet another step up.

ALAC, AIF, WAV, all sound very good to excellent, depending on the orig recording of course. Even compressed AAC files sound at least decent.... only the mp3 files were noticeably poorer sounding... (many of which were seven or eight years old too and done at 320kps constant bit rates).

I'm hard pressed to believe USB sucks IMO.

the pc path I use not counting wires came to me at $2750. $750 of which (the laptop) was free. So $2K for the DAC and 1TB NAS drive.

M Audio does issue a Fire wire sound card duplicate of the Audiophile 192... which I own in PCI format. I believe it's under $300 or right at it. I wasn't aware of that when I bought the PCI version... BTW, their support is great.

Check "M" out. ;-))

I keep hearing folks allude to fire wire, & I2S. i DON'T SEE MUCH BY WAY OF AFFORDABLE PATHS THERE THOUGH. i2s, ESPECIALLY. a $1,000 for the gizmo needed to get the info to a I2S DAC? Then there's the I2S DAC costs. how much is a decent one of those going for lately?

Blindjim - if you're happy with your current DAC/rig there's no reason to change. But to answer your question, certainly at the $2k cost of your BC there are I2S options. I think Red Wine's Isabellina is $2500. Northstar, Perpetual Technology and Audio Alchemy all have I2S DACs. Empirical Audio also modifies some DACs, like the Benchmark, for I2S input. You can read an interesting article by Steve Nugent of Empirical which contains much information on USB and I2S in Positive Feedback, here. Like you, I've had pretty good results with USB. I've only seen very expensive firewire options out there. I've yet to read anyone else opine that Firewire is a superior interface for PC audio purposes, and am still awaiting some links from Cerrot to support that statement.