[SOUNDinterpreter]

hey guys, i recently decided to work on my desktop rig and make full use of my laptop (dell e1705) and hd650's. after doing lots of reading i decided to get a DAC before an amp. right now i have a c&c box which i use to power my headphones. i plan on getting a tube amp, most likely a darkvoice 336se, and i want a DAC that would synergize well with my setup. i've searched and i couldnt really find my answer. i was considering the valab dac and was wondering what you guys thought. but i'm completely open to new options, even another tube amp.

also, does anyone have any recommendations on a nice external cd-rom drive, possibly one with dvd burning capabilities. i will be listening to cd's on my laptop as well, and my cd-rom drive is sometimes faulty. do cd-rom drives affect sound at all? or should i just purchase a generic one?

I'll be running xp, possibly ubuntu in the future, with foobar and flac/alac files or cd's. i listen to a good variety of music including radiohead, can, feist, charles mingus, aphex twin, television, a tribe called quest, and the black keys.

any advice is appreciated.

edit: i forgot to mention, im looking to spend around 200-300 USD.

 

[glitch39]

price? is form factor a concern? A modded Zero or the new Compass would be safe bets for a mid-fi solution. Either of those won't be too behind nor ahead of the rest of your equipment in terms of pricing and performance

 

[SOUNDinterpreter]

nice...very interesting dac. gonna read up some more on it. and no form factor is not a concern. thanks for your reply though.

 

[uraflit]

why buy a cd/dvd-rom when you can just use the one you already have and just rip the cd's instead?

that way, theresno need for cd clutter, just easy access lossless files on ur hard drive!