Hello, please forgive my ignorance on this subject, I have been reading up on external dacs, but am still very confused. I have been playing around with 192khz files from HDTracks.com and now I would like to build a media server using a mac mini, which will feed my Merantz preamp via HDMI. The way I understand it (admittedly more than likely incorrectly), the digital bitstream would be decoded by the DAC in the Marantz...similiar to how my Blue Ray player operates. Therefore, why do I need a third party external DAC? (keeping in mind that I am not considering the $5,000 - $10,000 dacs, I understand they would blow away the Marantz) I read about clock sync issues when the bitstream comes from a computer, this is where I become lost. Any info for this new guy would be greatly appreciated.
-Joe