usb dac for hi-end system

I have listened and owned several DACs through the years, and here are some favorites that I've kept around....

Naim DAC
Altmann Attraction (battery powered)
47 Laboratory Shigaraki
Homemade DAC based on Shigaraki

No Over Sampling (NOS) DACs sound more musical to me. I use Apple Lossless and AIFF files in iTunes on a Mac most the time. I also have a Linn Sondek CD12, Naim CDX2/XPS and Shigaraki transport. A large majority of my music is 16/44 (Redbook) so I don't have a lot of experience with high resolution content.

Emre,

I took a look at your system and you have an awesome DAC in the DCS. Your best bet at this time if you have a Mac would be to get the Wavelength Wavelink USB to SPDIF and then plug into your DCS. That is a $900 US solution, and he includes cabling necessary to connect. If you have a windows based PC you might want to consider installing a Lynx sound card and output aes/ebu digital.

I am unaware of a USB DAC that is clearly superior to your DCS stack. I haven't searched that hard though to be honest in the price range you are accustomed to. You've got a $15,000 dac....your best bet is to adapt the computer to access your dac rather than the other way around. Good luck.

"On paper", I'd stay away from any S/PDIF given that S/PDIF require one to derive the clock from the input signal. Asynchronous USB DACs don't have to do that and jitter is extremely low - not induced by the data link mechanism. However, in the end, jitter and how the data is transported doesn't make any difference if you like what you hear. Also, for any computer based front-end, sending PCM out USB is the way to go.

If I were you, I'd be tempted to go with a Mac+Amarra and a firewire DAC. Weiss has a very good DAC; as does Metric Halo. If you love the sound of your DCS stack you might want to try a firewire to SPDIF converter such as the INT-202.

Note: My knowledge is not first hand!

Your gear is state of the art. You will only be dissapointed with USB-even through the wavelength as suggested into your DAC. Asychroneous or not, usb transmits in packets-music should be a stream. If you get a mac, put it in the next room and get a squeezebox touch or someother gateway but USB won't cut it for you. If it has a firewire out option, thats much better than usb.