jzexport

I am afraid starting with what I have will not get me very far. An old Dell laptop with no way to get iTunes in digital format into my surround sound processor. I think, as I suggested in my response to Chris, that I should allow for a soundcard in my media server should I ever find I need it or want to check it out. In short, there is a very high probably that there is an audible difference between even completely digital components. Do you mean the input digital stream or some downstream component? If you mean the former, I would say, in the absence of hard evidence, and I admit being ignorant, that it is very low probability, rather than a very high probability as you say. I accept two difference DACs fed the same bitstream will sound different. One DAC fed the same bitstream twice will sound the same, unless it's incompetently designed, e.g., poor SNR, high distortion, etc. There is a lot of evidence that "bit perfect" is, as Barry, or Clay, or Chris, or someone said - the starting point for digital sound, not the final goal. And what might some of that evidence be other than "I hear it" or opinion? If people hear it, something must be going on. The original poster and I just want to know what it is. I'll settle for what it could be.

OK, call me a layman, but I do believe that if the bits coming off the storage media show up at the input to the DAC "bit perfect", that's all that can matter. It shouldn't matter if they came from the MOBO or a soundcard. It shouldn't matter if the media player was iTunes or JRiver. I'm no jitter expert by any stretch of the imagination. But, my layman's understanding says that's what buffers are for. Fill the DAC's buffer with accurate bits and let the DAC clock them out nice and uniform. All of this presumes digital out from a server to an external DAC. I agree totally that soundcards can matter if you want them to do the DAC. I also agree that media players can matter if you want them to do signal processing. The practical matter for me is specifying a system. I've been looking at A-Tech's offerings. They offer a case that allows for a soundcard and one that does not. I suppose paying an extra $180 to keep the soundcard option door open should be worth it, but it is hard to understand why that should ever be necessary, assuming I will never want the soundcard to be the DAC. Josh

Richard, I couldn't have expressed my confusion on these as well, if I tried. I, too, don't understand why a lot of this add-on stuff, e.g., soundcards and software, matters. Worse is when the explanations are, "But, I hear the difference." IMHO, too much of high-end audio is based on suggestion, belief, and placebo. I was looking forward to the convenience of having my CD collection on a giant juke box, but am having second thoughts on the cost, complexity, and potential insecurity of the quest. I hope more members will come forward with explanations for why these add-ons matter. Josh