dehavenon2

not too sure i know what you mean by midi. for the m-audio driver i have it set to 24/96 upsampling, is that what you mean? thanks, adam

i just compared the following setup: mac mini (via mini-toslink to toslink) bel canto dac (which upsamples to 24/192) naim system to mac mini (via coax) m-audio profire 610 (upsampling to 24/96 only b/c bel canto won't take above 24/96) bel canto (to 24/192) naim audio and the m-audio was the winner! why? does it have some kind of driver or equalizer that helps? also, is the m-audio total crap and i should replace it?

thanks bob, that clarifies it for me. i did, in fact go for the bel canto/mac mini option and really do like it. enough to be on my to sending my cd player, a naim cdx2, to my bro-in-law!! of course, the kind of blue i just played on vinyl is something else entirely.....

m-audio is out of the argument, i just extensively tested it versus just airport express to DAC and it failed in terms of bass, soundstage. hope it finds a decent home with a relative at christmas.... so why do we use these digital i/o's, anyway? do the external interfaces do more than upsample, because many DACs do that as well. thanks in advance for your knowledge.....

would it better and by how much to have which of the following: 1) powerbook g4/m-audio ProFire 610/Bel Canto Dac2 2) powerbook g4/multiface II w/ PCMCIA card/Bel Canto Dac2 3) macmini/bel canto

And no, MS does not stand for multiple sclerosis, my daytime job deals with trying to treat that, whereas my new nighttime job will be attempting to build an MS. The parts I'm starting with are: Macintosh Powerbook G4 1.2ghz w/ PCMCIA card slot Multiface II with PCMCIA card Bel Canto Dac 2 LaCie 500g And lots of Naim gear and brit speakers on the front end My questions are: 1) why do i need the multiface? if the recordings are in 16/44.1 after ripping via itunes, is upsampling them later wise? Also, what is this business of a "Word clock" that they claim to offer? (i just ordered the unit) could I have just gotten an m-Audio transit? Not sure why the multiface will help me so, but someone swore it would, less jitter at the card bus? //www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html 2) looks like i should import the cds via itunes as AIFF. if i were to do that with MAX I could upgrade them to 24 or even 32 bits, would that be better? 3) would it be better to run coaxial cable to my DAC than optical, i'm not sure on the matter. thanks!