Should I trade up from a Headroom Microdac to a Musical Fidelity M1? The MF will take up a lot more space. Is the sound quality worth the expensive?

Quote: I have the Swans M200 MKII and they have a built-in amp, so be careful and do not run an amplified signal into them. They need a preamp signal. You'll need to take the usb output of your PC and run it to the DAC, then to a preamp or amplifier.

I am deciding between a Musical Fidelity A3 24/196 and an Ultra Microdac for my PC>amplifier connection, which I am using more and more. I would think the MF is the better of the two. Does someone have some info on the sound quality?

I almost bought the Ultra Microdac but then I saw the MF V-Dac and the MF A3. Any buying suggestions?

How long do Headroom sales tend to last? If something goes on sale, does it stay at the new lower price?

I meant the Ultra Micro Dac, but the info on the ESS was very helpful anyway.

Is the optical output from a PC soundcard the same output from the usb? What is the output exactly?

Is a usb signal upsampled or only optical ins? And why would I prefer an oversampled output?

The problem with using the MicroDacs with a PC is there is no software control and then when I switch back to the sound card the driver needs to be reinstalled.

What is the sound comparison of the Asus Xonar Essence ST to the Headroom MicroDac? I have the MicroDac now.

The card is an Asus Essence Xonar ST, the newer PCI card. If PCI is phased out, I'd want to use it with a PCIe slot.

Are there adapters for PCI>PCIe and for PCIe>PCI? If you PCIe>PCI can you potentially lose some performance?

I've decided on the Asus ST, but what are the outputs on the ST Btw, can PCI be converted to PCIe if PCI is ever phased out.

It seems to be working. What does Asio4 have to do with Foobar?

I installed foobar 2000. The problem is that I am getting very choppy CD playback. I set the buffer high, but that didn't help.