[HawaiiR]

So I'm in the market for a DAC, and also in the market for an outboard audio interface, either the Quantum 2, Arturia Audiofuse or something of the same vein. Are the DAC's on audio interface's on par with dedicated DAC's, or at least the one on ones like the BiFrost?

I have a Schiit Lyr headphone amp, so I'm not worried about the audio interface not having enough juice for any of my headphones, current or future buys. Also, I don't absolutely need the audio interface just yet since I have a small mixing board, but I'd like to expand or just swap out the board for the interface, which is why I'm even considering it.

Should I skip the BiFrost and just buy the audio interface, or do I really need to get both? I mean I could get both, but I'm also drooling over the Mr Speakers AEON, but that's a whole other problem.

 

[theveterans]

For studio monitor speakers, I recommend a balanced connection as their internal amps are geared to have less distortion when run on balanced. If you look at a typical studio monitor, if you use the SE connection from Bifrost, you will have to double the gain on the internal amp side which will cause premature clipping and distortion at louder volumes. It's much better to use an audio interface in this case. My Yamaha HS7s are connected with balanced connection from the internal amp of my HS8S sub and without it, I had to raise the volume of the HS7 on the back to 10db more match the balanced output SPL. At louder volumes, I can hear slight clipping and smearing while this never happens with balanced connection.

 

[HawaiiR]

For studio monitor speakers, I recommend a balanced connection as their internal amps are geared to have less distortion when run on balanced. If you look at a typical studio monitor, if you use the SE connection from Bifrost, you will have to double the gain on the internal amp side which will cause premature clipping and distortion at louder volumes. It's much better to use an audio interface in this case. My Yamaha HS7s are connected with balanced connection from the internal amp of my HS8S sub and without it, I had to raise the volume of the HS7 on the back to 10db more match the balanced output SPL. At louder volumes, I can hear slight clipping and smearing while this never happens with balanced connection.

I'm good on the studio monitor connections, actually. As I mentioned, I do have a small Allen & Heath mixing board that is sufficient for now, so the DAC can connect directly to that or to my Lyr if I just want to listen to music from laptop without having to fiddle with the mixing board.