Zune output vs. CD output

Alright... I just looked into it... and I am intrigued, without a doubt.

A couple things I don't understand though. First, I am skeptical that you could get just as good or better sound out of the squeezebox than you could an MP3 player (docked, of course) because it is fed via a wifi connection. There really is no loss doing it this way?

Second, that Stereophile review made it sound like it was pretty essential to hook it up to a DAC... so there is a $300 dollar machine, but without second glance he throws in that you should invest another $1000+ in a DAC... not to mention he had it hooked up to a $10,000 pre-amp... Mismatch?? I guess the sake of the review was to test it on a reference system, even though it doesn't reflect real-world systems that these will probobly be used with. Anyways... I don't understand why there would be a need to hook up a DAC at all considering it had internal 24-bit Burr-Brown DACs. That is the same DAC that is in the NAD C542bee CD player that is so highly acclaimed... and I was thinking of buying. Wouldn't a 1st-gen rip into a FLAC sound the same through this as it would the NAD in that case?

Ok, and third... something I totally dont understand... is the stereophile review said it had a 'wall-mart' (notice the mis-spell, he must not frequent the walmart) power supply. He also noted that there are companies that will modify / swap the power supply. What for? Is this necessary?

Oh... heh, well it appears I made an idiot of myself.

The stereophile reviewer said 'wall wart' referring to the type of power supply in the squeezebox... not 'wall-mart' as I wrote. Lol, I thought he was calling it a cheap power supply by associating it with walmart... I must have been tired.

Anywho... my threat seems to be dead. I think I am settling on a squeezebox... they sound really nice.

I have a couple questions... One, more theoretical one, is how much of a difference would I hear in the jump from a squeezebox (w/o DAC) to one with a DAC or even the 'transporter' on my given system: Nad c325Bee, Paradigm Atoms, all w/ quality interconnects & speaker cable. I mean, it sounds great to me but it considered low-end of hi-fi... so would such an upgrade be worth it?

Also, I saw that there is a USB 'Host' option on the new archos PVP and on the new cowon PVP (as well as a digital coaxial out for the cowon). Can these players be functionally hooked up to a USB DAC?

Djembeplay, don't think that archos will do it for you.
I have own 604 wifi and now 605 wifi. I try it and it sucks when connected to my big system.
Don't know about ZUNE but my guess is that it is the same junk.
I use SONOS and it works or get squeezebox for less.

If you want portability new IPOD - with some modding from ROSE.

Cool, thanks for the input Mrjstark. That is extremely useful to know about the archos. I am assuming that any MP3 player would be the same story in that case.

This re-affirms my recent conclusion to go with the squeezebox.

Have you tried using the 605 host USB with a USB DAC? I'm not sure if this would work or not.

I dont think I am going to actually do this, but just out of curiosity... do you need a soundcard with USB outs to connect to a USB DAC or can you just run the signal out of one of the stock USB ports on a PC somehow? How much is a decent sound card with this capability?

You know... just making sure I am heartily comparing all my options here. It's tough... I'm trying to put together the best system possible given a really tight budget.

K, thanks again for the input.