Airpot Express - Upgrade amp or DAC?

Your problem is the AE, and no DAC will fix this. I know because I have modded the AE in the past for customers and developed several types of reclockers to make it sound good, including the Pace-Car and the Synchro-Mesh.

The Synchro-Mesh is the best way to make the AE sound good IME. What it does is reduce the clock jitter of the signal from the AE by establishing a new master clock. Jitter makes the audio diffuse and unfocused. The SM inserts between the AE and the DAC or SS receiver.

The digital source and the master clock inside that is the most important thing in any digital audio system.

BTW, the Sonos is another option to the AE. Most people use Sonos. It will not play hi-res but neither will the AE.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

This is not accurate. DAC will improve AE since it has relatively low jitter on digital output but horrible jitter artifacts on analog out. You can find measurements here:

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple

Any jitter suppression, either by reclocker or upsampling (reclocking) DAC is always beneficial.

It sounds like you have done some critical comparisons already and have idenified a system weakness that you know can be improved. I would follow that lead and get a DAC that you know something about or have heard. The audition is always the single best advice you can get.

Kijanki - have you ever actually listened to an AE through a DAC??

I have made measurements and critically listened to many digital sources, including AE, Transit, Tascam devices, Apple TV, Squeezebox 2, 3, Duet and Touch, Sonos, Lynx cards, RME cards and others.

The standout worst of these is the AE and Sonos. No DAC will reclock these enough to make it musical except maybe the PWD in NativeX mode. Silly to drive such a DAC with an AE...

The jitter reduction capablilities of 99% of DACs is dissappointing IME. You are better off to reclock the source if you intend to use a high-jitter source. This is cheaper than buying a really expensive DAC and works actually better.

If you read the last 10 reviews of DACs in TAS and Stereophile, you will find that they often use an Off-Ramp to drive them to determine the performance with a low-jitter source. TAS concluded that even $1K DACs can sound as good as $8K DACs if a low-jitter source is used.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio