Silver Supra

I'm very intrigued by them and certainly forsee a future without spinning disks (well silver disks anyway).

I've read great things about the Cosecant used in conjuntion with a PC. Does anyone on here use this type of setup? I certainly see the advantages of going this route... but I for one am having a hard time letting go of my love for complicated, heavy, beautiful disk players.

Robinson_A

I use a USB DAC in my reference two-channel system via the Bel Canto e.One S300iu integrated amp. Being able to simply plug in my laptop to my two channel rig and cue up thousands of songs is very cool. I rip all my discs in lossless formats and through the Bel Canto stuff I can not hear that much of a difference (if any) between the digital files and spinning the discs themselves.

I also use a USB DAC at my office via Outlaw Audio's RR2150 stereo receiver. Again, I simply run my computer straight to it and play music all day long.

__________________
Andrew Robinson

Managing Editor
www.avrev.com
www.avrevforum.com
www.modernhometheater.com
www.aprilshowersmovie.com

ljhodad

I have an entry-level computer setup using Foobar2000 v0.8.3> Scott Nixon usb chibidac> RadioShack 15-242 RCA cables> MisterX PPA w/Glassman 2nd Gen. buffers> Cardas cable> Senn. HD600. The PPA was bought used and later modified with the discrete buffers; and the HD600 was bought used off of ebay. Total system cost was about $875. I did a mini-review of the DAC on Head-Fi.com. The newer "UFO" version used JFET buffers and about a $100 premium; the sound is said to approach his older tube buffered version. The only hassle is that my speakers (Cambridge Megaworks 550) still get their signal through an op-amp modded Audigy2 which requires you to switch sources in Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices through the Control Panel when going back and forth. After much research I plan to upgrade the tired 5.1 speakers to Event ALP5 / S100 for a nice 2.1 setup.

deacongreg

I truly believe Bel Canto has lodged on to something here. The USB will be big for some users,especially those into ripping files only. These will be younger c onsumers, those who do not own record collections like us.
Plus, the space considerations. A college student must have a laptop in today`s environment. Add a pair of speakers and a Bel Canto amp, and you have a system without a huge investment. You now bring a whole new set of customers to the high end.

Telstar

Everybody think of laptops for the use of usb-enabled DACs, but I strongly believe that a dedicated custom-built mediacenter pc is a better choice and costing no more than a modern laptop.

Advantages:
faster. For the same bucks desktops costs half of their laptop counterparts. You can get a faster machine for the same money.
better looking: there are great looking cases for htpc. check out a-tech fabrication
quieter: with the right components and noise dampening materials

Disadvantages: not a ready-to-go solution, altough there are barebones available. Audiophiles rarely are also computer savvy people (I am )

BTW, Andrew i have a question for you: did you try to upsample on the computer before sending the source to the S300iu?
I have read other reviews here and somewhere else about cheaper usb DACs, that dont do upsampling and it seems that upsampling done within the computer is superior. I wonder about the Bel Canto (that wants me to buy it).

Telstar

Do you experience any clicks and pops due to buffer problems of the USB bus?
I'm refferring to the review of the Empirical Audio / Benchmakr DAC1 combo on 6moons:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/e...offramp_2.html

Does the Bel Canto come with any usb drivers? Which ones do you use?