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ProfessorPat
380
Nov 16, 2018
You have a DAC already in any digital source with an analog out. Is it good? Maybe, maybe not. Yes, you need a DAC for digital playback, but it's not like you need an outboard DAC for it. You want an amp first if you only get one. Getting enough power and good power are more important than upping DAC quality unless your source is garbage IMO, and if your source is that bad, I'd say get a better one anyway. The digital outs on something bad enough to know it's bad at this point in your journey are likely crap, so even a fantastic DAC isn't going to do all it is capable of. What you should buy is really dependent on your budget and your tastes though (as well as what sort of stuff you're planning on playing... MP3s, high res stuff, CD rips, DSD, etc.). Just starting out, it's hard to really do anything wrong if you stick to good "entry level" stuff. Most of it will show you something you like and something you don't. To really find "the best" gear you need to know what you want, and that's not going to happen until you've heard a decent amount of different gear. You certainly can go beyond "entry level" right off the bat if you can afford it, but there's something to be said about "training" your ears and finding out what you actually like before throwing lots of money at things.
ProfessorPatI agree with you. I am also just picking up this hobby and not really sure which dac or amp to get. Finally I just chose the dac&amp combo to go with my HD6xx.
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