First of all, YES, I believe people are going to want use their computer as a source for their audio system. It is extremely gratifying to be able to sample your entire music collection at the click of a mouse. I have been using an otherwise useless old iMac this way for a couple of years.
The problem is the audio output from a computer. Yuck. Bad analog. I digress.
Ummmm.... here is what I did based on what I hope are the right assumptions.
To get digital info from my computer to an outboard DAC (yes, yes, an Ultra DAC) I bought the M-Audio FireWire Audiophile. $350.
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FirewireAudiophile-main.html This device has 2 firewire ports for connection to a computer firewire bus and S/PDIF digital I/O (as well as analog I/O, an internal DAC, and other stuff that I don't care to use).
In my scenario, a firewire cable runs from the Mac to the M-Audio box, which essentially converts the connection into a S/PDIF digital out. My assumption here, is that the digital I/O is pass-thru, and not altered in any way. (I think, therefore I never know).
This in turn runs to the AVA DAC.
I think that, in this scenario, the computer provides the exact same digital file (yes, uncompressed) as would the digital out from a cd player.
I've done some A B comparison between the digital out from a cd player the computer both playing the same program simultaneously. Switching between both, I can't tell the difference.
But then again, my wife says I never hear what she says.
Do this sound reasonable (ummm, no pun intended) or am I missing something?
Anyway, as to your post, are you proposing that this optional circuit would be used in lieu of an outboard ultra DAC?
$500 as opposed to $800 for the Omega DAC or $1600 for the Ultra DACs? Sounds like an attractive option.
