To DAC or not to DAC?

Both the Oppo and the MB100 have a DAC in them. The one in the Oppo 205 is pretty good. I’m not familiar with the MB100.  An external DAC may provide an improvement in sound quality.

I use an Auralic Vega DAC instead of the internal DACs in my Oppo 203 and Blue Sound Node 2. I’m very happy with the sound quality. I think it’s very close to being on par with my Marantz KI-Pearl CD Player.

Will the difference you experience be night and day? Probably not. Will the investment be worth the difference in sound quality? Only you can make that call.

Can you get a loaner from the dealer and compare so that you can decide for yourself whether it’s a worthwhile investment?

Yes Yes Yes!!!! Go with a non oversampling DAC, and you will never turn back.

To state the obvious, the primary goal of a DAC is to make digital files sound analogue. Which ever DAC, CD player, streamer, etc... does this effectively is, in my mind, doing what's expected. Which then brings in to question the characteristic qualities of the DAC, i.e. detail, color or neutrality of tone, depth and width of sound stage, and so on.

I agree with Elizabeth that an actually listening test of the component connected to your personal hifi is optimal however, you still might be able to tell a lot by listening to it at the store.

What I cannot understand are the price tags on current DAC's given that they're all over the place. I'm still happy with my Ayre QB 9 DSD DAC (with tweaks) even though it's antiquated and it retailed for $3,500.00 new. A reference DAC in today's market, from what I can tell, could retail for as high as $20,000.00 or as low as $1,500.00.The question being, will the high priced DAC produce a better analogue sound than the low priced DAC?

An important part of the DAC is not just the filters but the quality and design of the output stage. This is the part that many less expensive DACs compromise on simply because well-executed power supplies and quality mosfets are expensive.

You can do your research and find out that something like an SMSL SU-8 is already on the verge of being totally transparent (if looking at measurements, look at version 2 of AudioScienceReview’s review). Unless doing heavy DSP, there really is no reason to spend >$500 on a stereo DAC. The SU-8 balanced is already super close to the Benchmark DAC3.