i think i have answered this b4, a DAC doesn't slot onto your PC Motherboard and doesn't have a USB (well some does). But basically they does the same thing, which is to convert sound from Digital to Analog to be feed to your amp.

Yes a dedicated DAC should performs better as you can isolate the power supply to draw from a power bank which is alot less distortion and noise, while the soundcard has to draw the power from the power supply/mobo which is prone to ripple and noise injected to the power.

edit: no i don't suppose you'll hear much difference on normal speakers, you need hifi where the source, pre-amp, amp's power are isolated to fully utilised the DAC. In those setup, even different RCA cables gives different results

This post has been edited by vincent_audio: Mar 24 2008, 04:27 PM

my EL34 valve amp is only rated at 20 watt, but is capable of powering floorstander speaker not even kilo watt

but my speaker are rated at 90db

gregy: i do not think DAC is the last thing you should consider as it is the 3rd item in the chain of the audio system, after the source and power. I do not believe you can get good sound if u have a bad source which normally has an integrated DAC. It's all depends on how good you want your system to sound like and of course how much difference you can hear.

well ya, that's the point i'm trying to tell, some of my friend has wat they call the first watt amp, rated at 1 amp powering high efficency speakers at 98db

it's the SQ, not the SPL that we are looking for. Those 1000 watt RMS is just marketing and looks cool on paper

alot of ppl is comparing, x brand got 100watt, y brand got 200 watt !!! y brand sure better