Any large gains from moving to DAC with MP3s as source files?

[imademymark]

Pico DAC! but thats stretching the budget abit

 

[glitch39]

Quote:

... and I was curious if there is much of a gain from moving to an external DAC from an Audigy 2 ZS when the majority of music are MP3s within the 192kbps-384kpbs/44khz format with a few FLAC collections....

It's only as good as the weakest link, which could be the audigy in your case. you won't believe how dirty the power is inside your PC with the switching supply. an external DAC may provide much lower noise floor and a higher headroom. So yes, it will be a huge gain.

 

[MikalCarbine257]

I'm starting to collect mostly flac from here on out

 

[MikalCarbine257]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imademymark /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pico DAC! but thats stretching the budget abit

Do you mean this? http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f38/he...thread-258967/

If that is a sufficient DAC/Amp in comparison to something like the EMU0404 and an M^3 amp? I'm really not interested in portability but more so quality. I'll be willing to budget about ~$400+/- for the DAC/Amp all together

 

[Taikero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikalCarbine257 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you mean this? http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f38/he...thread-258967/ If that is a sufficient DAC/Amp in comparison to something like the EMU0404 and an M^3 amp? I'm really not interested in portability but more so quality. I'll be willing to budget about ~$400+/- for the DAC/Amp all together

I'm going to go ahead and point out that regardless of the DAC selection here, I don't think there's any question the M^3 is a better amp than the Pico (and please, if anyone does dispute this, please explain most thoroughly why you think so). That's not to downplay the Pico (which is a superb portable solution), just that the M^3 is, at its price point, amazing for a desktop amp.