Sorensiim
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2008
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I recently bought a Maverick Audio Tubemagic A1 amp here on Head-Fi and I love the way it drives my headphones AND my speakers comfortably from such a relatively small box. It's currently being fed from my desktop pc by a Silverstone EB01 usb-DAC which gets the job done when playing 16bit FLAC files. 24bits are downsampled. But which way to go for a new, 24/96-capable PC -> amp solution around $2-300?
The obvious choice would be to get the Maverick D1 dac as the A1 and D1 were literally made for each other. This would also give me a wide range of inputs, allowing me to connect my PS3 and my tablet as well. But should I just hook it up to USB and be happy or do I upgrade to a decent sound card and use coax or optical to connect the pc to the DAC? Should I just use an optical cable from the onboard sound card?
Another solution would be to get a new usb dac, capable of handling 24/96 files. But since I do all my listening in Ubuntu Linux, will I need special drivers to enable 24/96?
Or I could get something like the Aune DAC mini and hook it up to the pc via optical or coax?
Any and all input & suggestions are most welcome
The obvious choice would be to get the Maverick D1 dac as the A1 and D1 were literally made for each other. This would also give me a wide range of inputs, allowing me to connect my PS3 and my tablet as well. But should I just hook it up to USB and be happy or do I upgrade to a decent sound card and use coax or optical to connect the pc to the DAC? Should I just use an optical cable from the onboard sound card?
Another solution would be to get a new usb dac, capable of handling 24/96 files. But since I do all my listening in Ubuntu Linux, will I need special drivers to enable 24/96?
Or I could get something like the Aune DAC mini and hook it up to the pc via optical or coax?
Any and all input & suggestions are most welcome