Cwlondon,
I never looked into using a USB device or any other regarding the output to the DAC. There is no need when a capable card is able to output a bit perfect stream. With Foobar or an ASIO plugin you have eliminated the Kmixer in a windows based system. I am using a Chaintech 710 card which costs about $27.00 at the local computer shop. I output using a custom optic cable from Fiberfin. This goes to the digital lens which eliminates all jitter and then to the Tri Vista.
If your the you chose has a buffer it should be able to stabilize the jitter timing and provide the rich satisfying music we all strive for. As for the choice of DAC's, there are many which cost much and sound mediocre. Let your ears decide what you like best.
Building a PC is quite simple and straight forward. Just be sure to get a case which allows room to route the cabling. Most full size ATX boards with PCI-E are going to do the job without breaking a sweat. Your choice of AMD or Intel. If you are using the PC as a HTPC the get the fastest processor you can afford. This is where horsepower will pay off when decoding HD content.. especially when running ffdshow.
I never looked into using a USB device or any other regarding the output to the DAC. There is no need when a capable card is able to output a bit perfect stream. With Foobar or an ASIO plugin you have eliminated the Kmixer in a windows based system. I am using a Chaintech 710 card which costs about $27.00 at the local computer shop. I output using a custom optic cable from Fiberfin. This goes to the digital lens which eliminates all jitter and then to the Tri Vista.
If your the you chose has a buffer it should be able to stabilize the jitter timing and provide the rich satisfying music we all strive for. As for the choice of DAC's, there are many which cost much and sound mediocre. Let your ears decide what you like best.
Building a PC is quite simple and straight forward. Just be sure to get a case which allows room to route the cabling. Most full size ATX boards with PCI-E are going to do the job without breaking a sweat. Your choice of AMD or Intel. If you are using the PC as a HTPC the get the fastest processor you can afford. This is where horsepower will pay off when decoding HD content.. especially when running ffdshow.