[Panum]

Hello out there,
 
I know there is a lot of these posts, I'm sorry. I've read a lot of them here, and all over the net. Basically spent like 1-2 hours each day the last 5 days to gather information and impressions... But yet I seem to be confused.
 
The scenario is this: I'm an ANR of a small underground house label (note: house, as in the music genre). My friend which owes the company (and is also a producer) owes a pair of Yamaha monitors, and some amplifier and what not improve his quality and handle midi controllers etc etc. But what I admire when I hear tracks at his place is the crispness of the sound, sounds amazing when listening to electronic music. I LOVE that.
 
Personally myself, I just have a pair of AudioEngine A5 connected directly into my (****ty) MacBook's minijack slot. They aren't horrible speakers, and are in general a pretty strong single component for music listening. I'm no hardware expect at all (after all I'm a software engineer), but I'm curious... what would improve my listening experience the most? I also have a pair of AiAiAi TMA-1, but I prefer using my speakers when at home.
 
My personal guess, would be to get an external DAC and I've thought about these:
 
DacMagic Plus
At first I thought this DAC was all so great, as I found some nice reviews. But then when reading this forum, it doesn't seem to be great for its pricerange?
 
AudioLab M-DAC
Just found this one today. So don't have much info and impressions, but is it any good?
 
Arcam rDAC
I found an review that said this was explicitly better than DacMagic Plus, but then when reading this forum... it seems like a lot of people hate the sound of it?
 
 
So my question is: Am I on the right track of improving my listening experience? Should I instead save up and buy some other monitors instead? or maybe even something totally different?
 
In case I'm on the right track: Which DAC would you choose? I'm looking at $600ish pricerange (obvious flexible if something near is A LOT better).
 
Thanks a ton for your help.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Not on your list, but you can wait for reviews on the sound of the NuForce AirDAC if you want 'crisp' sound; NuForce products I've heard so far have that and a good deal of bass. So far most of the reviews I've read focus more on the wireless function (set-up, connection quality, etc) and usually have one or two paragraphs that basically say it sounds "good" or "cd quality." If that's enough for you then I'd say you go ahead and try it.