LeoL:PJPro:Well, I already have a DAC - a Beresford. Just thought I might be able to improve my PC as a source further by swopping out the Creative Sound Blaster XFi Extreme Gamer soundcard for an M-Audio Audiophile.
To be honest, I'm looking for something to buy and it seemed a good, relatively inexpensive option.Am I missing something here? My understanding is that the Beresford doesn't have a USB input? Why would you want a PC soundcard when you can squirt the sound digitally straight out of the PC via USB. I had a Creative X-Fi Music card in my PC and when I got rid of it and replaced it with the Fubar I got much better sound instantly. No drivers, much greater flexibility and better sound. So what am I missing? What is the PC sound card doing for you but creating hassle? If you are using it for surround sound for gaming then I get it, but if it is for music what is the point of trying to get better sound out of a card surrounded by all the interference from a PC. Please, please do enlighten me if I'm missing the point.
The Beresford is very good at what it does. It has a very good array of inputs (2 optical, 2 coax), and 2 sets of outputs (fixed and variable), and a headphone amp, and volume control. It can even be used as a preamp. I was using it from an xfi cards spdif out with headphones, and the sound is really good.
I since swapped to my desktop PC, which hasn't got SPDIF, so I tried a Trends UD 10.1, which in itself is a DAC, but it doesn't compare sound quality wise... quite thin sound. But it also doubles up as an external USB soundcard with an spdif, and I passed the sound back to the beresford and hey presto, lovely sound once more.
I am now using a Roland UA 1EX with the Beresford as it does a similar job, but supports 24/96.