errrrr dont wanna prick ya bubble there buddy but in whole scheme of things ya rig is mid fi at best. let go thru ya system shall we.

well IMO...

1.the Juli soundcards prolly excellent as means for digi out either toslink or better still coaxial.

2.the behringer DAC is an unknown quantity -to say da least- soo i wont comment on it 'cept to say i would hardly qualify as anywhere close to hi end (well mayb in canto...just kiddin )

3.emm Harmon kardon does make some ok commercial stuff esp HT but again i'd hardly call it audiophile but i havnt heard (or even heard of) ya citation preamp soo waddaikno.

4.de Adcom 555s prolly ya best piece of elec equipment here & its actually quite decent. i owned a 555 eons ago & IIRC its strong midfi.

5.monitor audio does make decent speakers but i'd hardly call it anything other than good low-mid end bookshelfs.

6.while i cant say much about belkin powerbars, i certainly wouldnt call it 'power conditioning'.

7.im completely indadark about da koss 3kva but it sounds like either a surge protector or a UPS or a combo of both - the only pls i'd use a UPS is for ya PC itself & NOT anywhere else.

8.monster cables & ICs while definetly a 'brand'name, i'd hardly call it hi-end by any measure - its prolly hi-end comparo with cap ayam but tats about it. infact monster can be summed up as the bose of cables (its not a compliment btw).

sooo bottomline, yaa ya rig is 'hi'end'...compared with the typical PC speaker system but calling it audiophile hi-end is akin to saying our esteemed gomen owns allah or isit just da word allah....

just me 2cents since u posted it for comments

hey im glad tis threads still alive. as a non interested 3rd party the OP does come on a tad 'strong' in his equipment self evaluation. just a tip -only a IMO tip ya- its always best to NOT make bigg claims (unless ya bigg maamaa rosiee for which then its...destiny ) & expect others to dutifully quietly & obediently agree. esp when its de other wayyy 'round

anyhoos FWIW IMHO i think ya on da rite track building a PC based rig. i bliv its the current & future of music. i have to respectfully disagree wit arguments of bright brittle digital sounding if its not CD. actually its the other way round of digital sounding bright brittle etc etc wen comparo with true analogue turntable/reel2reel rigs but tats another story for another day ).

its [s]NOT[/b] CDs nor PCs nor HDDs tat are bright brittle harsh or otherwise - its the downstream electronics tat processess da PCM datastream tat determines the typa sound we get. wether CD player or PC rig, its only serving as a digital transport. its wot happens after that counts.

sidessss da turntable is almos extinct not bcos of its inferior sound but bcos of its inferior user interface. theres nothing convenient about poppin individual CDs when i can have it all on HDD & even gadgets like iphones & touch as remotes.

i think Benchmark (makers of da Benchmark DAC) themselves admit tat their USB DAC is as good if not better than their spdif version. i think tat says it all.

sooo OP keep it up & do loads of listening. perhaps u will have a rig someday of which "we are not worthy" status but for now.......

dont wanna sound -pun intended LOL- skeptical here bud but ahh needs a tad more detail like hows datastream being extracted from da PC? if its jus off de mobos onboard soundcard, then yesss IMO its very likely to be crappy. or isit off a hifi grade dedicated soundcard with discrete power supply? toslink, coaxial or USB? even if one uses the same downstream components, da factors i've stated can me a diff.

sooo one really cant make general statements like PC or CD player is better - it all depends on the means & its implementation

sheeeeaaat braa if ya do all that, even my ipod will become worldclass - maybe even cap ayam becomes KFC!

seriously though, the mods u stated are exactly wot 'hi-end' components provide. its becoming glaringly clear to me that the DAC chip itself has the least to do with great sound but more the peripheral circuitry & components surronding de DAC that truly matters. sheeeaat some of the big name audiophile DACs uses NOS philips chips made in de 90s !!!

but if ya planning all those mods, then i think ya on the 'korek' path. im just completely indadark on the behringer though but it doesnt really matter i guess. theres a standup dude on headfi that mods a cheapie china errr 'average' -im being kind here- sounding DAC called ZhaoLu D2 and turned it into a serious player just be upgrading the analogue section (similiar to Zapfilter) plus power supply mods too i think.

however i wouldnt go round quoting stereophile mag as the gospel truth though cos...emmm they have not been known to be totally transparent & non biased. gotta keep ze advertizers happy u know la.