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Jump in now or wait?

Very close to purchasing a Benchmark DAC1 usb to use pc as sole source. Music is saved in apple lossless w/error correction in Itunes. Is it worth buying now (will need to buy new as these units seem to be rarely available used) or is the pace of technology changing/new products coming to market such that I should wait 6 months or so? Have to believe a number of fellow agoners are wrestling with this same issue.

Relatedly, is the DAC1 going to get me sonically where a nice CD player would (thinking of used Ayre CX-7e).

Thanks for any input.
dokosan
herman
1,974 posts
 
Wireless is correct. The PC as a source, the whole arena of digital playback for that matter, is mature enough that there will be no huge improvements. This is not first generation stuff, it is a variation on technology that has existed for over 20 years. If you wait for a "wide variety of high resolution downloads" you may be waiting forever. We've had SACD and DVD-A for years and there still isn't what I would call a wide variety available on those two.

Get in now.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
There is no error correction in iTunes playback. It just reads the data and spools it out, either PCI, USB or WiFi depending on your device. There may be multiple reads when ripping, but no error correction on playback.

WiFi because it is networked has retry and error detection built-in, just like for your print jobs.

There are of course, better USB and WiFi DAC's coming in the future. It is up to you whether you want to wait for them. The DAC-1 can always be sold on Audiogon.
herman
1,974 posts
 
Steve, I've never heard the mention of error correction on playback. Are you saying my computer might not be reading the hard drive correctly and needs error correction?
kennyt
1,226 posts
 
I currently have the DAC 1 PRE and can say it is a very nice unit and simple to set up and use.

Walter, I would suspect the DAC's in the AMR 777 to be a step up, and should be for the like seven times price difference!

The DAC 1 is a solid and very musical DAC with clear and extended highs that are not harsh. when compared to my Esoteric DV-50s, it didn't have quite the soundstage or air, but was very listenable to, and did a great job even with high bit rate MP3's.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Herman - no, the reads from the hard drive should be error-free. Its the spooling from memory out to the device that has no error correction.

Steve N.
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