Upgraded soundcard or DAC for lossless playback from laptop to Hifi?

[chebby]

So I want to playback from say iTunes and Apple lossless files.

Do I invest in an upgraded plug-in soundcard for my notebook and connect that to the hifi?

Or

Buy a DAC?

Do I connect the DAC to the PC with USB? Any suggestions for a budget DAC that is good?

Thanks.

 

[John Duncan]

Either - M-Audio make good USB soundcards you can use, or you could invest in something like the Beresford DAC, which would be more versatile, though you should check that your laptop has an optical out (they are often built in to the headphone socket) in order to do so.

Another elgant solution would be an Arport Express, with your laptop as the music server, though in this case a DAC would be mandatory to get good sound quality.

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I use an iMac into a Benchmark DAC1-USB to play Lossless files. Works very well and sounds great.