Schiit Bifront or Musical Fidelity M1

Zman - just get good cables - it will sound great

Did you get the UBER upgrade - it makes a difference

I've just ordered the v-link192 just to see if that makes a difference - as opposed to using the USB directly into the DAC

There's lots of positive feedback about the v-link, so it will be interesting to see what transpires :-)

I'll keep you posted as to the outcome.

Regards

Willie - I use extremely good cables... my own. I am a cable manufacture. :)
I'm thinking about building a server instead of using a PC. I hear they sound much better.

Zman - I've heard that too, but I cannot really see why.

Perhaps it's the better quality hard drives used, or the different bus architectures employed?

Personally - I stream via my iMac, but store all my music on a NAS drive with server grade hard drives in a mirrored Raid configuration - which has already saved my library once from being wiped out. Simply dropped in a new drive and it created the new mirror overnight.

All associated hardware is on a hard-wired LAN with CAT6 cabling using it's own hard wired router. No wireless communications in the picture at all.

Extreme? - maybe, but very fast - no problems at all streaming my 24/192 content and the quality is very good.

I originally tried wireless, but there seemed to be too much interference, I assume from other routers close by, that caused frequent dropouts.

Glad to hear you use good cables - they make so much difference. I make my own also.

Do you make your own power cables?

That's something else I've found pay huge dividends, particularly when using a more advanced cable architecture.

Chat Later

Bifrost uber will probably be my next dac based on reviews and suggestions from audiogoners.

I did a side by side comparison with the Parasound Z Dac, Musical Fidelity V Dac with pangea P100 power supply upgrade, Musical Fidelity M1, and Cambridge Audio Dac magic. I preferred them in the order listed.

I thought the M1 sounded a little lean, not much meat on the bones so to speak. Good detail, just too lean for my tastes.

I liked the Parasound Z dac quite a bit because it sounds analogue, not digital. It has great bass control and sounds full.

I've researched the Bifrost uber quite a bit and it looks like a very solid dac for the $. I like that its built here in America so any warranty issues should be handled well, and I also like the upgradeability designed into Schiit products.

One last thing I discovered just yesterday - use dbpoweramp to rip CD's - the SQ is so much better - I was using iTunes and sometimes MAX on my iMac.

Now I rip (AIF) on my windows machine to a USB drive and then import to my iTunes library on my NAS drive

Just google dbpoweramp to download a free 21 day full function version

Back to re-ripping - yet again :-(

Regards...