Dac suggestions to pair with Squeezebox Touch

my understanding is that the dac in the touch already outputs 24/96 via the analog outputs. for pandora and internet radio that should sound fine. has he listened to it that way yet? if he were using lossless files, he may want to look into an external dac, but if his main use is pandora and internet radio, i would imagine the onboard dac should be sufficient. i've used it and thought it was very good. fyi, the touch only outputs to a dac via coax and optical, not via usb. i thought i read that there's a "jailbreak" of sorts for this which would also enable usb output, but would probably not be anything your father would be interested in looking into. and i may have misinterpreted what i heard. :) anyway, this is a long way of saying i don't ave ay specific recommendations. the emotiva xda-1 dac at $250 might fit the bill, but i've never heard it. a fellow i communicated with via audiogon recommended it to a friend who was very happy with it, though, and it might be just the thing for your father.

i totally forgot about the schiit. can't wait until more user reviews of that pop up. and you can always add usb later for $100 when you need it.

Anonymoustao,

Thanks so much for the info! I had no idea the SB could already up sample a pandora stream to 24/96 via the analog outputs.

Crooner, Thanks for the Schiit recommendation.

I guess at this point I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's compared the SB's internal dac with other outboard DACs.

How high up in price does one have to go before one hears noticeable improvement? Perhaps an upgraded power supply would be a better direction (?)

In the past, I've used my SBT with a Musical Fidelity V-Dac which is an excellent combination and very simple. Should be able to find one on the 'Gon for around $200