I just bought the new Wadia 121 dac for $1299. It is very detailed, has lots of clarity, a tad on the warm side of neutral-especially after having played it for 2 weeks now, just an awesome dac. It is asynch USB, just use the usb input into your transport. I love it.

Thank you very much Uncle Erik, that makes things more clear. I will probably buy a new computer soon and add a soundcard with digital outs. Thanks for the replies.

Thank you Alai. In other words, the connections have to be labeled as such? (spdif, coax, etc.) All mine say is audio output and audio input, so I'm assuming that these aren't the right connections for a dac? Exactly what do I hook up to my audio connections, speakers only?

Hello, I am totally confused by some of the computer connections. I read about spdif, coaxial, toslink but I am unsure about which of these my computer has, if any. My computer is approx. 4 years old, has a headphone jack in the front and the back of my computer has audio output (line out) jack...

The reason that I want USB is because I don't want to have to buy a converter; just another piece of equipment to own and I'm also not sure if the cheaper converters would change the sound (Trends; Hag), etc. for the worse.

Has anybody listened to the Brigatta from Pacific Valve & Electric Company? It's a USB dac and looks pretty interesting.

I think the playstation comes very close to the Dac 1 in certain areas, with the Benchmark winning for dynamics, bass and soundstaging. The PS is every bit as detailed as the Dac 1 though, and is also a bit warmer. I thought the Benchmark was very neutral, but I decided I didn't want neutral as...

Well I finally got my PS1 and hooked it up yesterday to give it a listen. I have Von Gaylord amps, pre-amp, and interconnect, Transparent MusicWave+ speaker cables. I hooked it up with my RCA interconnects first, then tried it with the AV multi out from player to pre-amp. With the first...

No, but I just purchased the Sony playstation scph-1001. When I receive it, I'll post my impressions of it.

I use DVD flick for movies, it's free and easy to use. I don't use it for music though, I use eac for that.

Maybe you should look into Electroccompaniet. I've heard good things about their players/dacs and I think they are based in Finland (or somewhere close to it).

I tried the above freedb servers and still can't access freedb, anything else to do?

I've noticed the same thing with EAC, I can't access anything from the website and it won't categorize my ripped CD's. I sent them an email about this but haven't heard back yet.

I own the Sony PSLX250H and love it. I just wanted a cheap turntable to see if I liked playing records and I am amazed at how good this little system sounds. Of course I take it in the context of what it is, just an entry level turntable, I only payed $130 for it. I would not even consider...

Just remember that you also want to also enjoy listening to your system, so going as "cheap" as you can won't necessarily be the best answer. There are plenty of reasonably priced, good sounding speakers, also reasonable but good sounding amps out there, but you must do your homework to find...