Do I need a DAC?

If you're not obsessed with a stereo that sounds good, sell your gear and buy a bose wave radio ;-)

It sounds like to me though, you don't care too much about your sound, simply because you said so, so yes a dac would make your rig sound better but is it worth the $ spent? Only you can decide. Try borrowing a dac or buy one that you can return if you don't like it, otherwise be prepared to spend $300-$600 on something that isn't going to "wow" you over.

"If you're not obsessed with a stereo that sounds good, sell your gear and buy a bose wave radio ;-)"

He didn't say he was obsessed with bad sound.

Actually, I think I can see why the OP was worded the way it was. I've read threads on this site were people would argue like its life and death over things like what kind of rca connector is best on a pair of IC's.

Whether you'd get appreciably better sound quality from an external DAC depends a lot on the source material too.

Are you playing hi res files, CD rips or just 128kbps iTunes downloads?

Thank you for all the responses!

B_limo: I never said I didn't care about the sound - I simply said that I am not OBSESSED by having the best of the best. Big difference.

I am mostly playing 265kbps or higher from iTunes, but not 24-bit and so.

Keep the responses coming guys :)

Oscarrr, you don't need to be playing 24 bit files to be able to appreciate a better DAC. Most of my files are standard 16/44 and I find an external DAC necessary for the low cost sources that I use.