HEPD_Express

On a side note, I have a noob question, if I were to get a DAC without volume control and be forced to control the volume through my pc, will the DAC be locked at maximum volume? Will my pc's volume control be enough? will it be loud enough for normal listening?

I wonder what the sound quality difference is between DSD64 and DSD128 (which I understand is the same as DXD right?) is? Some have said they can't tell the difference between 96PCM and 192PCM...

yeah I'm not very fond of the Denon at all now that I know a little more about what goes on in the electronic section of my system, I'm planning on getting either a Red Dragon M500 MKII or something from D-Sonic as amps

I just wanna say you guys have been incredibly helpful these last few days, I tried a similar question on another forum, and it was considerably more condescending, wasn't pleasant at all. As for the advice to go analog heavy, I'll definitely look into it, again thanks a lot everyone

Ted, I hear you on that, and thank you for the advice Mav, honestly I don't remember which publication I read that from nor which model, how has your experience with your DAC2DSDse been in terms of tonal neutrality?

my main concern is the difference in sound quality between something like the Mytek/Benchmark and ifi's iDSD...

Mav, I've heard a lot of good things about W4S, I've also heard DAC2 sounds a little too laid back, your thoughts on that?

Paul, I wish my 600 dollar Denon has preouts lol, but when I bought it, I wasn't thinking this far in, to be honest at the time I wasn't even sure what a DAC was. As for the analog thing, I'm pretty sure you're right about what you said, hell I agree, but I'm not exactly ready to shell out ANOTHER grand or so for a competent analog preamp. I see these things as investments, so I'd much rather get good reliable units now so I don't have to replace them in like 2 years or something stupid like that, so if I'm gonna get an analog preamp, it'll be something decent. So for right now, I'll just settle for the analog inputs on a good DAC, this way even if I get a less-than-perfect analog circuitry, I'll at least end up with an excellent DAC that I won't have to worry about, and later upgrade myself to something from Parasound or the Emotiva XSP-1 or something similar to handle analog

My time in the Marines made me realize that I'm pretty decent with my hands, but I dunno if I'm DIY good lol, and since this is my first set of separates, I think it'd be best if I just play it safe for now. DIY does intrigue me, as I have a computer I built myself, but DIYing audio components sounds like a whole different game compared to PCs...as for what I don't wanna keep, I'd like to replace my receiver with a dedicated DAC and power amp, the speakers I'm pretty happy about

I don't know if I'm ready to drop $5K on the Manhattan from Mytek, and some of those choices don't have an analog input or balanced out, I can live with just RCA, but analog is a deal breaker, I'd rather spend the extra money on a good analog in on this DAC than to shell out for a full on preamp down the road when I get a turntable (probably really soon after this dac...)

well my main beef with my Denon is the power, it clips sometimes if the volume or dynamics are a little too much, and the clarity just don't seem to be there, therefore, I feel like a good power amp would do wonders as well, but that's besides the point... I was looking at Schiit and ifi, but neither of them have analog inputs... P.S. I'm pretty excited about getting a new dac and hooking that into the Denon at first, there's no way a surround oriented dac can match a dedicated stereo one...

Hello everyone, my name is Mike. I've been obsessed with sound for a few years now, always preferred a stereo set up to surround, but the funny thing is I've never had a dedicated stereo dac + amp/receiver, and I'm looking to fix that. Now I'm running a pair of Verus Grand Towers (although I love these speakers, I feel almost embarrassed talking about them compared to what some of you guys out here are running) driven by a Denon X2000, source being a custom desktop PC via toslink. Earlier this year it occurred to me that there's no way I'm getting the best out of my $2000 giant killing speakers with a receiver about a quarter of its cost from a brand who is not marketed towards audiophiles (after all that's Marantz's job). In my research about a getting a dedicated DAC, I discovered DSD, now I already think 24/192 sounds amazing, so needless to say I'm pretty excited about getting to experience DSD tracks. Since I love classical music, I think I'll find the selection to be fine as the availabe DSD library grows. At the same time I'm wondering is it worth it? As most top quality non-millionaire DSD DACs cost quite a bit more than their PCM-only counterparts. If I were to go the DSD route, I'm pretty sure I've got my sights set on the Benchmark DAC2 L, I'd like a fully balanced system, as I'll be getting amps with fully balanced inputs, and I'd also like for it to have a competent analog input as well, as my wife and I are drooling over the prospect of vinyls in this system. Now onto my problem: for a third of the price I could get the same feature set from the Emotiva Stealth DC-1, minus the DSD functionality obviously, and they've been getting pretty good reviews in terms of sound quality. Do you guys think it's worth it?