PeteAce

I see Headphone Bar sells the Schiit Bitfrost Uber DAC. It's got a pretty good sound quality review, but it does not support DSD and no upsampling to 192k. I can live without DSD but what about the upsampling, is that a must have feature or there is no difference?

Thanks so much ecwl. Not much change for me, but I know I have the right setup now. Anything else I can change software wise as far as getting the best output? I'm leading towards the Musical Fidelity V90 dac, but I can't seem to find a dealer in Canada.

ecwl, great suggestions! I never really paid any attention to the software or setup. Only recently that I started to use JRiver from the posts here (windows media players or winamp before). You're right, I'm not getting the sound that I'm comfortable with.. but I do think my Harman Kardon HK3490 and Klipsch R82 speakers are quite decent for starter. I have no idea about the bit-perfect sample rate, but I have 24/192 using the default Windows Direct Sound. I also use DFX audio enhancer to only increase the dynamic range, but should I not use that? What is the best configuration here in my case?

Thanks for the suggestion. My PC is a Zotac Zbox ID81 running Windows 7. I've never used a DAC before, do I use the optical output from my PC for the audio and the USB for the software? I'm not sure if my receiver can bypass the input signal, at least I haven't seen an option for it. Is that usually an issue? I'm also planning to find a vintage Sansui intergrated amp (AU-717 or similar models) if that will help.

Hi all, My goal is to greatly improve my FLAC/320kps MP3 collections on my stereo system. I stumbled across the idea of an external DAC as I'm not able to upgrade my onboard sound on my mini PC. My current setup - mini PC onboard sound optical out to my HK3490 amp that has a built in DAC converter (192kps). I do not care about movies or games, I just want awesome music experience. I'm open on the budget if it's worth the cost, but prefer to be under $1000. I see there are so many DAC converters out there and I don't know where to start! Please help.