[H5N1]

I am looking for some USB DAC for my Powerbook. I prefer to have 24bit/192kHz capability (try to have no excuse for upgrades later

).

Thanks

 

[KenW]

Welcome to the club! I'm in a similar boat and have no DAC in sight!

 

[H5N1]

Oops, forgot to mention that I want a digital out as well.

 

[H5N1]

How about Apogee Mini-DAC ? Anyone has experience with it? Does it support DTS ? If not, will it work this way (digital out -> DTS amp) ??

 

[Glassman]

minidac is only up to 16/48 when connected via USB just like most every DAC with USB input.. only real thing are devices like M-Audio Sonica/Transit, which are at lest 24/96..

 

[H5N1]

So my best bet would be having a device to gain access of a digital out. Then hook it up with whatever DAC I want, right? So can you recommence some devices that will allow my mac to have digital out?

Thanks

 

[thomaspf]

I think this might have changed recently. Edirol released a new USB2 audio interface that it advertizes with support for 24/192 support.

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua101.html

The digital outputs are limited to 24/96 though.

I have no experience with this but this might be worth investigating if you are in the market for such a unit.

The microphone preamp will come in handy with a Behringer ecm8000 if you want to do any room correction.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[KenW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf I think this might have changed recently. Edirol released a new USB2 audio interface that it advertizes with support for 24/192 support. http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua101.html The digital outputs are limited to 24/96 though. I have no experience with this but this might be worth investigating if you are in the market for such a unit. The microphone preamp will come in handy with a Behringer ecm8000 if you want to do any room correction. Cheers Thomas

So there is such an animal after all! Of course, at $500 it might be a bit much for listening to tunes on a PC especially if limited to the 24/96. I wonder if the transit isn't a better value....at least for what I want which is to simply play music on my laptop/pc at a reasonable sound quality.

Still wondering if the usb Transit, microdac, amp and cans isn't my best bet for the money?

 

[thomaspf]

The only commercial content in 24/192 that is for sale comes from DVD audio. I only know of a couple of Creative Labs cards that are certified to play encrypted 24/192 DVD audio. However even on those cards 24/192 is only enabled for the analog outputs. As far as I know there is no legal solution to get encrypted 24/192 DVD audio content in the clear on an S/PDIF interface.

The price does not look outrageous. Having USB2 is clear advantage and don't forget that this is also a multi-channel solution.

I also like the integrated microphone pre-amps. For a serious setup with speakers you will likely want to do some room equalization. I ended up buying a separate USB mic preamp which got me pretty close to $500 for the total solution.

However, as I mentioned before I have no experience with this particular audio interface.

Cheers

Thomas