digitalbeltdrive

Thanks wgscott. That is interesting however I have the 'factory made' DAC so I do not think the USB input is an option unless it can be retrofitted. However the Halide Bridge could work well as the DAC only deals with 16/44.1. I am surprised that there seems to be little on the market that fills this gap though, especially from HDMI. I am basically looking for the Computer Audio to DAC equivalent of a CD Transport: Computer = CD, Transport reads digital data and outputs via Unbalanced S/PDIF and a Balanced AES (XLR), DAC does what DACs do best. There is so much that can be one with a good home media server these days: Stream from various online services, playback personal files on a NAS, play internet radio, relay output from TV, etc. Basically I am looking for something that does this but outputs via one of the above methods. That's why I'd plan to use a MiniMac but I could always use a dedicated media server. Thanks again for any pointers!

Hello all, I have an Audio Note Dac 2.1 x Signature which has an Unbalanced S/PDIF and a Balanced AES (XLR) input. This is perfect for a CD transport to DAC but I am struggling to work out the best way to get from a computer. I ideally would like to setup a MiniMac as a music server. I could output via USB or HDMI. I would imagine that HDMI is the better output for digital audio seeing as it was designed for it, unlike USB, but USB has been around longer and there are there seem to me more choices for converters from USB. Do any of you recommend one over the other? There are definitely Audiophile USB to S/PDIF and AES converters out there but are there any Audiophile HDMI to S/PDIF and AES converters and have any of you compared them? This is possibly a huge subject but I would be grateful if any of you could point me in the right direction. Many thanks, DBD