Apogee Big Ben for Jitter reduction

Isn't the lens and the Big Ben redundant? I just read up on the lens -- interesting product. But, don't you need to feed the signal from the lens to a DAC? Or, the signal from the Big Ben to a DAC? The Slimdevices Squeezebox in another interesting piece of gear -- just read up on that, too. Lots of great info -- thanks! Is there a way to feed a digital signal from my G4 Powerbook directly to the Lens? Do you use a DAC? You've got me excited at the prospect of turning my computer's hard drive into the transport for playback that can sound close to the Wadia. Is the squeezebox a necessary part of the chain?

One would think perhaps the Lens and the Big Ben are redundant. But I have tried them independently and both together. I find the sound improved with both. Plus the Lens has a remote and accomodates my multiple digital inputs including the ST/ST glass input of a Wadia 270se. Yes...the BB and the Lens both function entirely in the digital domain. I use a dCS Delius dac.

I don't think you will be able to feed the digital signal from your computer straight into the Lens or a BB. That's why you will need something like a Squeezebox. You'll need something that will accept a WAV or AIFF or MP3 stream and convert it to PCM for output to your system.

Good luck,
Harry

Apogee makes a DAC that takes a feed from the USB port on the G4. Is it possible to use the Big Ben after the DAC or does it have to come before?

Rsbeck:
The Big Ben functions in the digital domain. It must come before the DAC. But I think Apogee has come out with a new Dac (Rosetta 200) that incorporates much of the benefit of a Big Ben.

You could skip the Big Ben...and go with:

G4 -> Rosetta 200 -> preamp

I'd discuss it with the folks at apogee before you make a decision.

Harry

Thanks for all the food for thought!