I keep hearing folks allude to fire wire, & I2S. i DON'T SEE MUCH BY WAY OF AFFORDABLE PATHS THERE THOUGH. i2s, ESPECIALLY. a $1,000 for the gizmo needed to get the info to a I2S DAC? Then there's the I2S DAC costs. how much is a decent one of those going for lately?
Blindjim - if you're happy with your current DAC/rig there's no reason to change. But to answer your question, certainly at the $2k cost of your BC there are I2S options. I think Red Wine's Isabellina is $2500. Northstar, Perpetual Technology and Audio Alchemy all have I2S DACs. Empirical Audio also modifies some DACs, like the Benchmark, for I2S input. You can read an interesting article by Steve Nugent of Empirical which contains much information on USB and I2S in Positive Feedback, here. Like you, I've had pretty good results with USB. I've only seen very expensive firewire options out there. I've yet to read anyone else opine that Firewire is a superior interface for PC audio purposes, and am still awaiting some links from Cerrot to support that statement.
