Help Choosing DAC

"Do some DAC units have the preamp built in? I am wondering if computer to DAC to amp is the right way to do this. "

Absolutely. Next to jitter, active preamps are the biggest impediment to good SQ. Here are four ways to do this:

1) Get a DAC with a really outstanding volume control technology and sufficient drive to go to amps directly.

2) Use 100% software volume control - this will impact sound quality because you will need at least -20dB of attenuation

3) Use a DAC with gain settings that allows you to reduce the volume using software controls, but limited to about -10dB. This will not impact sound quality.

4) Use a non-volume control DAC to feed a passive transformer linestage (TVC). Decent ones start at $1500 and go to $8K.

"Also what file type is best to build my library with."

If you want the very best SQ, then .wav is it. It may not preserve all of the tags and album art. If you care about tags and album art, then FLAC for PC and AIFF or ALAC for Mac. Even if you have everything stored in ALAC or FLAC, you can change it back to .wav successfully using good tools like dbpoweramp or XLD for Mac.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

FLAC sucks with most computer interfaces. So does ALAC and even AIFF. .wav is the only pure format. If you are after the best SQ, imaging and soundstage, .wav is it. Even sounds great on an iPod or iPhone.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Mabonn - 2X bigger.

David12 - do you have acoustic treatments in your room? Are your speakers optimally positioned and toed?

You should be getting pinpoint imaging, soundstage well outside your speakers and 20-30 feet behind them. If you dog jumps and looks around when the music comes on, you know you have it. If you can go into the adjacent room and it sounds like a live concert coming from the other room, you have it. Otherwise, not.

It takes some patience and tweaking to get even the best systems to be dynamic and live sounding, and most of all, resolving.

If you are using an active preamp, all bets are off. You probably will not hear these differences.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio