Hi, I have been reading various topics on the forum with interest and have decided to join this great forum.
I have been messing about with PC's and tech for years but would like some advice setting up a good quality PC based system where I can enjoy my music in either the lounge or my office.
In the lounge I have a Denon 3808A receiver which is a fabulous piece of kit when watching movies on Bluray.
I am adding a pair of B&W CM7 speakers which can be amp assigned from the receiver so when listening to music I can choose 2 channel stereo which will activate the 2 B&W speakers.
The denon receiver is a quality bit of kit and has it's own DAC etc. so when streaming music from the PC the denon should be able to handle everything.
The idea I have is to have my own music room in the office where my PC is based so will be adding a pair of B&W CM1 speakers.
I have an old Sony receiver which I will use for the time being as I am saving up for a cyrus 6xp amp.
My question is do I really need a separate DAC and if so will it really make a difference?
My confusion starts because the PC motherboard has built in sound and audio codecs. It is a good quality board with the Via VT1828S DAC which provides 24bit/192KHz output (input SNR 95dB Output SNR 100dB) via S/PDIF or Toslink which I can connect directly to the amp.
How different will the sound quality be with a separate DAC?
Oh, I will be streaming AIFF or Flac files.
