scott

You could try a CEntrance DACport which supports 24/96 over USB, but no other inputs and only a single 1/4" headphone output. But it is in your price range and IMHO sounds quite good.

Anybody care to comment on their thoughts comparing the CEntrance DACmini vs the newly released Burson HA-160DS? I currently have a CEntrance DACport driving HD650's which I like a lot, but want to upgrade to something powered. Was all set on going with the DACmini when I saw the HA-160DS released. I know the 160DS is new, but it uses the same DAC and head amp as the HA-160D so somebody should have some experience to allow a comparison. Will be used via USB from a MacBook Pro.

If you are chasing a refurb MacBook Pro, try and get one of the early 2011 models as these will still have Snow Leopard on them, but get you the upgraded i5/i7 processors and more video ram. Agree you need 8Gb RAM and it is dirt cheap so no need to not buy it, but you can get it after-market from places like OWC much cheaper than Apple. I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.2GHz with 8Gb RAM and love it. I am running 16/44.1 AIFF files through iTunes into BitPerfect (upsampled to 24/88.2) and out to a CEntrance DACport to a set of HD650's and love the combination. Have not had any stuttering or freezing issues with BitPerfect that others have experienced and I think it is because of the 8Gb RAM.

@agentsim Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like I have it configured correctly then. All good now and I can get on with listening. I like your product and look forward to further upgrades.

I am a new Computeraudiophile user and also a new BitPerfect user. I have a 2011 i7 MBP with 8Gb RAM and use a DACport. No issues so far with any sort of glitches, but I have noticed something that I am not sure about. When I connect the DACport with BitPerfect disabled I can see in Audio MIDI Setup that the DACport is selected as the sound output device. But when I enable BitPerfect and play a track, if I go back into Audio MIDI Setup it shows the 'Built-in Output' as the device selected for sound output. But if I check the BitPerfect settings it shows 'Playing - 24/88.2' so I am guessing the data stream is actually going through BitPerfect and I am getting sound through the DACport into the headphones. I think it is working correctly, but I am not sure why the sound output device switches from the DACport back to the 'Built-in Output' when using BitPerfect. Using v0.32 of BitPerfect and Mac OS X 10.6.8 Any ideas?