New to digital high-end, need help

Visit several audio salons if you can. Almost all will have a range of systems that can stream via Toslink, Coax USB, and will be able to show you how to set up and let you listen.

Take some of your favorites on a USB stick. They will have several DACs and probably a windows laptop or MAC to play with. There are Many, many options and competing products available right now and more on the way.

Personally, I like analogue volume controls much better than digital. I usually leave the digital set at 90-95% and make all adjustments with the pre-amp. Keep in mind that most pre-amps or integrated amps have some gain with the volume which can tremendously help an amp but may also exaggerate any unwanted noise.

I am getting exceptional sound from my Digital front end, which consists of...
- Droid tablet controls playback using Retune software to control iTunes
- iMac + iTunes (librabry control) + Audirvana (playback)
- Schiit Bifrost DAC connected via DH Labs USB cable
- connected to NAIM 5i amp via KLE Innovations gZero3 Interconnect
- Gershman Sonogram speakers connected via KLE Innovations gZero2 Speaker Cables

The DAC has an asynchronous USB-2 port and it re-clocks - which minimizes jitter. A friend compared the DH Labs USB to a very expensive silver USB - we both thought the DH Labs sounded better on his $50 system

I download FLAC/WAV files up to 24/192kHz and convert to AIF because its easier in the world of Apple

Audirvana is capable of playing FLAC, but AIF is just as capable

I use Audirvana because it bypasses the crappy Apple software that inserts digital volume - it sounds much better playing the raw data file from the CD's

Apple or Windows or Linux all have their particular "Warts", so there is no clear advantage from one platform to the other.

I switched to streaming to get away from the inherent issues with CD's - I think it sounds as good, if not better and is far more convenient.

There are a number of folks who argue for taking analog output of an Oppo BDP-105 directly to amps. The 105 accepts input from a computer via asynchronous USB or regular USB, HDMI, and optical and coax S/PDIF. The 105 provides speaker configuration, bass management, and a fine volume control. It's analog processing is thought by many to be SOTA. It also can play nearly every disc know to man.

The BDP-105 has no analog inputs, so I use a bypass preamp to accommodate a phono stage.

db

"At what price point can I expect a DAC to make a dramatic difference?"

more than $1K but maybe not as high as $3K

A Qute DAC ($1795) with the right power supply ($699) and USB cable filter ($199) is quite excellent. The ripping/playback software and the computer platform also matter however.

"I would like to use the volume control on DAC/preamp to limit the max while using the ipad"

This is a good strategy and one that I often use as shows. The problem is finding a really good volume technology in the DAC. This one has it:
http://www.audiostream.com/content/empirical-audio-overdrive-se-usb-dacpre

" I have read the digital volume controls (such as Touch/iPad??) actually decrease resolution as the volume is decreased. Is this true?"

I have done these comparisons. If you do more than about -10dB, you will notice degradation. I like to adjust the volume to a quiet track and then when a louder track plays, I reduce the volume digitally using Amarra by no more than about -9dB.

"Are digital files successfully used in that level of system? Can they sound as good as a quality CD source?"

Yes and even better than a CD transport. The front-end is the most important thing because jitter in the digital source impacts everything downstream. A good metric for the digital source is $1500 minimum, better to spend $2200.

If you cook-up your own server, it will generally sound better than most OTS servers, with the exception of maybe the Antipodes server. I recommend for you own server to use a 2009 Mac Mini and powered from a Hynes power supply.

You can get close to this quality using your squeezebox provided you reclock it and power the reclocker from a Hynes-type supply and use a really good coax cable.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio