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DAC or no DAC? If yes, which one?

I am trying to complete a modest yet quality stereo system with a Mac mini as the source component. I would like as much as possible to have no obvious weak links in the chain. The area I have come into the most confusion is how to feed the signal from my mini to the amp. Either I run an analog signal straight through the mini out to RCA or I do a mini to toslink into a DAC and feed that into the amp. The system is thus far, Nuforce Icon amp (Not the icon integrated but just the amp with a volume knob) Anti cables feeding into Mordaunt Short 902 Avant i's which are setting atop Atacama Nexus 7 stands. The two DACs I have considered most are the Music fidelity V-DAC or the Beresford tc 7520. Any thoughts? I have heard there may be compatibility issues with the V-DAC re: volume coming out maxed at all times, however it seems that with the volume control on the amp this may not be of real concern. The Beresford has an option to control the volume via the DAC but it recommends using the fixed volume output through the type of setup I describe which makes me wonder if there is any difference (regarding functionality, not sound quality) between the two considering my intended set up.
sasquatchman
tobias
1,534 posts
 
As you say, you don't need a volume control on the DAC. Your amp's volume control will do the job fine.

You don't have to start with a DAC. You can take the signal off the Mac Mini's headphone output and run it right to your amp. The better your cable, the better this will sound.

If you do use a DAC you have a 99.9% chance of getting better sound than the headphone output will give you. If it were me starting out, though, I would start cheap and upgrade only when my sonics seemed a bit less than satisfying.
sasquatchman OP
1 posts
 
Thanks for all your responses. Much appreciated. I like the way you think Tobias, I am a miser at heart.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,760 posts
 
I agree with Mezzrow's assessment of the Nuforce uDAC. Its only input is USB but it's very impressive for a $99 piece of gear, substantially better than the headphone output of my MacBook Pro and better than the highly regarded Valab DAC I owned that costs twice as much.
elevick
2,637 posts
 
If you are going on a tight budget, the Jolida is only $120.
fmer
38 posts
 
Hello: I own the nuforce icon not the udac hooked via toslink it is a excellent dac for $500 with single ended to my preamp Hooked to my macmini.
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