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best DAC for PC server

I have recently started using a PC to serve my red book CDs to my music system and I love the convenience this system gives me.
What I hate is the sound quality - output of a RME9632 via glass optical to EAD8800pro DAC pre-pro. Its not bad, its just rather average and misses capturing the emotion that Ive heard through the best cdp's (Linn CD12 for eg).
I now want this convenience but with great sound quality of the CD12.
Would adding a Meitner or DCS (and so on) quality DAC on to my PC be worthwhile?
Can the Meitner take a coaxial input and how does it sound when not fed via the Meitner transport. I am aware I couldnt use SACD but this is a insignificant problem right now. I would have the ability to add a transport later if SACD became interesting to me.

thanks in adv,
VB
vikingboy
vikingboy OP
42 posts
 
Hey guys,

the DACs you mention all use a USB connection so I would obtain low jitter from my PC based transport but would any of these combo's live up to the CD12 in terms of absolute quality?
Is the USB interface the sole reason for these units performance or would adding USB interfaces to other DACs inprove their level of performance too?
Stupid question, but could I add a USB connection to the meitner DAC or my existing 8800p???

Steve, do you do the USB mods to those units you mentioned?

thanks all
vb
jcvr777
49 posts
 
try www.vrssystems.com
or www.vrsystems.com
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"Steve, do you do the USB mods to those units you mentioned?"

Yes, I can put a USB interface in any DAC, including the Meitner.

I would recommend using your favorite DAC and just install the USB interface in it or use an audiophile-quality external converter.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer
cgw
29 posts
 
Cary 303/200 is a CD player which can act as a DAC. This is what I bought when I went looking for a DAC for my home theater PC. It has HDCD and I use the digital pass through to my A/V receiver to play DVDs and DTS music. I hear the Cary 306/200 is even better!
drobbins
20 posts
 
Hi there,

I use an RME card as well. I'm using coax out. If you want to lower jitter, you should probably upgrade your card with a little daughter-card that RME sells that has a word clock out, and then get a DAC with a word clock in. (You can then run 2 cables between your RME card and your DAC -- one for normal SPDIF data as you have now, and the other for the clock signal) Then you can configure the RME card to be the master clock and the RME card will send a very high-quality clock to the DAC for it to use, so that the DAC doesn't have to get the clock signal the normal (jitter-prone) way, by decorrelating it from the digital data coming over the SPDIF link. The clock signal itself, when transmitted on its own cable, is very low bandwidth and does not incur any jitter of its own, so you basically eliminate transport jitter by using this approach.

Off the top of my head, I think the top-of-the-line Esoteric DAC has a word clock in, and I'd assume that most pro-oriented DACs as well as pro/home crossover DACs like some of the dCS and EmmLabs (ie. Meitner) models have them. You may want to check with RME for more details. I'm not a professional audio engineer so I'm just starting to figure it out myself, and looking forward to trying it here. :)

Regards,

Daniel
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