the record spot:AEJim:
Richard Allen:Anyway, to get back on track, if this little box is any bottle, maybe your magazines should look at reviewing it. £32 quid delivered, USB, in and out phonos, optical out AND a headphone amp as well. £32 quid????. Just up your street. IF it's any good that is.
Might give that a look, we did a lot of experimenting with laptops and DAC's a couple of years back - the end result being that if you did it the right way (I can't remember the complete details but some DAC's didn't completely bypass the laptop internals) and use the right media player then you can get extremely good results. In'fact it worked so well we used an AE branded DAC at the CES show going through a £3k amp and our £1500 floorstanders - nobody (and I mean nobody) even noticed as we had it tucked to the side of a cabinet.
Even the top reviewers from Stereophile were extremely impressed by the system - when I told them the source was a laptop they looked confused, when I checked the file that was playing and said "Oh, it's not a lossless one either - only 192kbps!" they looked even more confused... The end result was that we had a very positive write up but they attributed much of that to the amp (which was frankly dire - luckily not a brand I've seen in the UK but I didn't know amps could sound that poor!??) and no mention of the laptop!
So I think it's well worth experimenting with, and in a blind test I'd like to see how many can tell a difference of a decent budget DAC and laptop and a £1k or so CD player... I'll try and update with what software we used as Windows Media Player and the like do not give you the full benefit - can't remember the details of why not but I'll check in with RnD later and find out what it was...
Great story James - love the idea of the Stereophile guys looking a bit confused. Like introducing apples to oranges I think!
I don't think it's all that difficult to do either Record Spot!!!