There are all kinds of high-end exotic DACs out there.
I'm wanting to connect a Mac Mini / NAS storage to Cambridge Audio stereo gear, leveraging files of at least CD quality not simply 128 kbs.
This is perhaps a naive or noob question but is there enough sonic difference between adding say a NuForce uDAC 2 via USB to RCA stereo over simply having a nice gold-plated, good quality headphone to RCA cable for peanuts?
I've a friend that claims on basic HP Windows 7 box, that the driver itself is the key element and DAC/cabling secondary.
Put another way, with a good driver, is standard digital to audio conversion good enough, presuming no interference, to skip needing a DAC?
Is the DAC like one of those 'go faster PC programs' that doesn't do much but makes buyer feel like everything's better even if the difference is little, or none, especially if they've paid a lot of money - like old Micromega CD that was a Philips CD player in a fancy box with French marketing to justify a massive mark up?
I'm wanting to connect a Mac Mini / NAS storage to Cambridge Audio stereo gear, leveraging files of at least CD quality not simply 128 kbs.
This is perhaps a naive or noob question but is there enough sonic difference between adding say a NuForce uDAC 2 via USB to RCA stereo over simply having a nice gold-plated, good quality headphone to RCA cable for peanuts?
I've a friend that claims on basic HP Windows 7 box, that the driver itself is the key element and DAC/cabling secondary.
Put another way, with a good driver, is standard digital to audio conversion good enough, presuming no interference, to skip needing a DAC?
Is the DAC like one of those 'go faster PC programs' that doesn't do much but makes buyer feel like everything's better even if the difference is little, or none, especially if they've paid a lot of money - like old Micromega CD that was a Philips CD player in a fancy box with French marketing to justify a massive mark up?