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Thanks for the reply
Im trying to get my head around all these connections and chords. I currently dont have a sound card, so if i was to get the amp it would connect from the White and Red audio plugs to the motherboard through either optical or USB?
If i was to pick up the DAC too, it would connect to the amp using red&white cables? I think i might pick up a DAC too, as i will probably buy a soundcard in the near future. I have a feeling once i start going down this audio road i wont stop, but damn, it can be so expensive!
edit: one last question (for now), how do speakers come into all this? I currently have some below average computer speakers, which i hope to replace sometime with some better non-USB powered speakers. Im just trying to futureproof as much as i can.
IMO, if you're going down the road of buying a Magni amp, I'm not sure I see the point of avoiding the Modi DAC (or any DAC for that matter). I know it doesn't make a lot of sense at the moment, and you probably wonder why you ought to spend another $99 bucks on something you don't understand.
Let me put it this way: if you start out with noisy, flat, and crap sounding audio, an amplifier just gives you noisy, flat, and slightly louder sounding crap. If I wanted loud sounding crap, all I gotta do is call up my ex wife. Or use a mini stereo jack to pump my laptop's headphone jack into the input of a Magni amp, and hope it sounds good. Yeah, it will probably sound better. But it will be even cleaner with a DAC (whether you use a Modi or something else).
A DAC gives you a cleaner sounding audio signal to start with. So when you amplify it, you get cleaner sounding audio. The more you spend on a DAC, the cleaner it gets. There is a point of diminishing returns, that only you can determine. That point is reached by your own experimentation, and the size of your wallet. But I assure you, a DAC is not a waste of money, and as far as I can tell, even the cheapest one is an improvement over what's built into most sources by default.
Why a DAC? Well, cuz our audio is stored digitally. Vinyl records and analog tapes are largely a thing of the past (yes, I used to buy both, and some people still do - but I think that's just a novelty). When us old farts listened to records and tapes, we didn't need DAC's because the music was already in analog format. But with everything in digital format now, you need something to convert the digital music into analog music before it hits the amplifier. Hence, the need for a DAC.
The DAC is an important component simply because it's the thing that converts digital music to analog, and hence affects the quality of the sound produced. Do you want Gordon Ramsay cooking your dinner? Or are you content with a high school kid with an attitude cooking your dinner?
Ipods and laptops use cheap DAC's, just enough to get the music out of the device. They aren't totally bad, but there are a lot better quality DACs to be found. And you can spend quite a large sum on a good DAC. The Modi is by far one of the least expensive DAC's in existence. And quite frankly it does one hell of a job for the money you spend on it. You can spend more, but I think the next best DAC is going to be several times more expensive. I could be wrong, but I'm not going to spend the money to find out.
The only other DAC I've tried to date is a Pure i-20 (which is a DAC that docks an iPod into it, and is about the same money), and quite frankly the chip in the thing is too bright, tinny, and irritating to use with a solid state amp. I'm using it with my Bravo V2, and doing some serious tube rolling to find a tube that quiets down that tinny DAC. In comparison, the Modi is smooth and accurate without being tinny and irritatingly bright. But I digress.
As for speakers, well, this here is a headphone website, LOL. I think you're going to need to spend a bunch more money and visit a different website to find some speakers that rival headphones of the same price range. I understand that Audioengine builds some very nice desktop speakers, but I haven't personally tried any.
