[ginettaman]

I'm looking to putting together a sound system, am I better to spend £150 on a NAD 521bee,
or perhaps a cheaper DVD player and build or buy an external DAC.
something along the lines of a Monica 2, Zhaolua 2.5 or Audiodiylabs DAC101

thanks.

 

[hugz]

There are different camps on this. Some people think that a DAC and a cheap cdp is a good way to get good sound for cheap. Others think that the connection between the cd player and the DAC will introduce jitter which will hurt sound quality.

Personally I'm not even 100% certain of the audibility of jitter, so I'd probably go for the cheap cdp + DAC option. It also allows you to use your computer as a source (with the addition of a cheap usb->digital box). DACS are also a little easier to upgrade IMO (you can just upgrade the dac and keep the transport, whereas to upgrade a cdp you have to upgrade both the dac and transport at the same time)

As a disclaimer, the only one of your products that I've heard is the zhaolu (and only 1.3 and 2.0) and thus this is NOT a response to your options; it's simply a "theory" post. Hopefully someone will come along who has heard both the NAD and one of the DACs

 

[Advil]

I'm going to be buying a CD/DVD Player and DAC soon as well, but make sure it's a DECENT one at least. Not any cheapo one.