[cryoparts]

Lee,  for some of us DIYers, an entire system (including a lap- or desktop computer)  could be put together for that amount or less. 

No doubt!  And, I bet it would sound really good! 

I meant to "say" that one person's definition of entry level, or affordable, may not be the same as someone elses.  Didn't mean to sound like a butthead, sorry!   

Lee

[low.pfile]

Thanks for help. Now I can have the mini-Tos link in the Mac Mini to operate in 24/96.

My next question is, if I buy the Airport Express (802.11n one), can it also support 24/96 in a wireless manner?

Many thanks.

Well I just tested 24/96 for you.....though I have a Airport Express 802.11g and it does not support 24/96.  My Monarchy DAC shows the input sampling frequency on the display and it shows 44.1 when connected to the AE with mini-toslink to toslink when playing a 24/96k AIFF file in iTunes. The same file displays as 96 on the DAC display when directly connected with toslink(without AE). Therefore, it looks like my AE downsamples to 16/44.

I do not see any audio upgrades mentioned in the AE .11g press releases and nothing is specified in the Apple AE .11g specs.

a little digging shows the REV 1 AE 11g uses a burr brown PCM 2705 chip which is a 16bit DAC chip