DAC = thin sound

ALAC is compressed, but lossless. It still impacts sound quality when using USB or S/PDIF from a Mac. AIFF is better, but also not without fault. I wish Apple would fix this. Only .wav is unscathed by the software.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

IMHO, the USB implementation on the DL III is not great. I had to buy a Vlink to get close to my Denon transport in sound quality when using my laptop as a transport. With the proper PC software I was able to best the Denon-DL III sound quality. All that said, my system still sounds really bright to my ears. Haven't solved it yet.
I am not able to hear a sound improvement between audio formats, I think this is dependant upon the system, but it is a cheap tweak to try. I also cannot hear a difference between glass toslink and digital coax, maybe it is my hearing!

I have an AppleTV connected to a V-dac with toslink. The tone density increased when I used a shorter glass toslink cable that I bought on amazon, and when I changed interconnects from the V-dac.

I run Apple lossless files, but I even get good heft and tone from some MP3's that are well recorded.

I would start out playing with cables, toslink first.

Speaker positioning may be an issue also. I recall I had to change the toe-in to return to a coherent sound after the switch from a CD Player. Don't ask me why.

IIRC the USB input on the DLIII is limited to 16/44.1

i think 'bright' is the closest term I can say on my system. Also the midrange is really thin sounding to me.. I wish I could have gotten the oppo uni. player :( but all the CD's are stored in my library now..

oh well

Jast - you can fix this by adding a good USB converter and drive S/PDIF with a good 1.5m cable to the DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio