superears

I agree, fan noise would be a problem if you are using a desktop with fans. Eventhough I use headphones, I can still hear the computer fan. I am prsently constructing a system with the Onkyo NDS1 and the apple ipod, and external DAC. It will be completley quiet and my computer doesn't have to be on.

Hey Guys, I am in the process of setting up a high end audiophile purely digital source for music. I am not sure if you know it, but the end of spinning media as input devices for music is near at hand. There are companies offering downloads of music in 24bit96khz to 24/192 format as WAV and FLAC etc. The sound of these is incredible compared to standard CD format. So, what you need is a high quality sound card such as from Digigram - these run you around $300 and up, so if you are serious about your music, then these cards are for you. Don't even think USB if you are an audiophile. So, now we have the sound card which could be for laptop if you have PCMICA slot, or desktop. I take it that your computer has decent hard disk space. The next thing that you will need is software to playback FLAC or WAV; MediaMonkey, or Foobar is pretty good. An external DAC of your choice that has digital inputs. The output of the DAC will feed into a preamp etc. Mine is setup to a STAX earspeaker system, so the DAC output goes to the STAX driver amp unit. All of this in terms of sound quality would be equivalent to maybe $20,000 traditional equipment to get similar quality in sound. All the equipment that I listen to is modified to sound as close to live music as possible. I hope this puts you on the path to high end music.