I have one of the better Yamaha receivers plus two Cerwin-Vega bookshelf speakers plus an Infinity sub that sound pretty good playing the AAC(mostly 256) files on my iMac. I've heard that a DAC can really make a difference. Can anyone confirm that and possibly even make a DAC recommendation?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
The DAC manufacturers and, I am sure, enthusiastic audiofiles, will make all kinds of claims that an external DAC makes a huge difference. I urge some caution however because you would necessarily also have to have high end audio equipment (amp, speakers & wiring) as well as a near-perfect environment (studio, anyone?) in order to hear a meaningful difference just because of the DAC. It's not just a matter of having a DAC, it's the entire audio setup that makes the difference.
IMHO if your system is at home and you have a reasonably good amp & speakers, the analog output from your Mac will deliver excellent performance and you would be hard put to discern a difference by putting a DAC in the audio chain. At least, that's been my experience.
Also, if your Yamaha amp has optical digital input, you can connect it directly to your Mac's audio out (combined headphone + optical digital output) ... without needing a separate DAC.
Does a DAC make a lot of sound difference when connected between an iMac and a good receiver?
