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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

My opinion - It's the DAC

Just finished several months of experimenting. A friend and I both became interested in computer based playback. I chose a windows laptop with esata connected external hard drive and JRiver. He chose a Mac laptop with external drive and Pure Music. We tried USB direct to DAC and converters. We listened to ifi iDAC, Meridian Explorer, Halide DAC HD, Bel Canto, and 3 different Audio Note DACs. I know we barely scratched the DAC surface.

Listened to the Musical Fidelity V Link (24/96 version) and John Kenny's MK3 JKSPDIF. The V Link is an improvement over straight USB but the MK3 is better.

The Audio Note DACs were all better and each model better as we moved up the line, an older kit version of the 1.0, a current 1.1x Signature and a current 2.1x Signature. The 1.1x Sig is very nice. The 2.1x is a significant upgrade.

We tried all DACs and connections in both systems. Did not notice a difference between MAC and PC..except the MAC costs twice a much.


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  • My opinion - It's the DAC - rrob 04/13/1318:17:39 04/13/13 (2)

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