"one: audio software:does anyone recommends any audio software upgrade such as Amarra or any other, which would lead to the fact that can you really upsample, or is it a misnomer, and the only form of HD digital audio are only select companies?"
Sometimes people have hang ups when it comes to up sampling. They say since a CD is locked at the 16/44 standard, there's no benefit up sampling because you can't get anything more off the CD than what's originally on it. Technically speaking, that's true. But up-sampling does change the way the music sounds. Its easier to visualize if you don't look at up-sampling as increased resolution. Think of it as signal processing. For me, personally, I usually prefer it. I hear a little more detail and an overall smoother presentation to the sound.
"two: budget DAC ! is the difference in price of DAC`s really indicative of quality, or can you get something good for about $ 700, made for computer versus cd players ?"
This is another issue that's easier to understand if you visualize. A CD player and a PC are exactly the same thing. If you properly rip a CD, there should be no loss. The information is still there, its just stored on a HD instead of an optical drive. Its the same basic thing, either way. If you take a picture with a digital camera, the image file may be stored on an SD card. You can move the picture to a HD, CD, DVD, Flash Drive, etc..., and as long as you don't do anything to change the data the pic is made from, you'll get the exact same image on your computer screen, regardless of how its stored. There's no loss. So once you rip a CD, still think of it as a CD. The PC is the transport, and the data gets sent from the transport to the DAC for processing. Exactly like a CD player does. And just like a CD player, there's many different ways to get you to an end result. So, for example, if you have an entry level PC audio setup, and a really high end CD player, you can expect the CD player to sound better. If you have a crappy CD player and a really high end PC source, you can expect the computer to sound better. So just think of your computer as a CD player, because that's exactly what you're doing.
If you remember my first post, I recommend that you set yourself up for CD playback first. (using a computer). The reason for that is you then have a reference that you can use to better judge hi rez playback. Once you feel confident that you know the sound of your PC like you would a CD player, you need the reference to make sure you are going in the right direction. Obviously, you're going to want to make sure your hi rez material is definitely sounding better than the same thing on CD. And for that, you need a good reference. Its too easy to waste money in audio.
