Do I need a DAC?
hi guys, i want to play music from either my laptop or ipod through to my hifi in the best quality possible does a DAC allow me to do this? if So how? i feel playing music through my ipod just doesnt have the quality .
ok, i have musical fidelity 550k supercharger power amps, and a5 preamp and a sugden cd21 series 2 cdp.
Been comparing my iPhone4 / iPad3 to my Squeezebox Touch lately (all analog out into Marantz PM6003).
Never before have my eyes (ears?) been opened to just how mediocre the iDevices sound. Literally, not a patch on the Touch. Actually the onboard sound on my motherboard sounds considerably better than the iDevices. Though none come close to the Touch.
so yea I'd say deffo. get yourself a good DAC. Which one? That's for your ears to decide.
You might like to consider the Vertere H/phone -> RCA cable....I went to a demo evening, which I described here: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/accessories/an-evening-with-touraj-moghadd...
FWIW I thought the iPod / PC connected with this cable, sounded better than it had any right to...so see if you have a dealer who stocks Vertere, and will let you try it.
idevices have never been developed to sound hifi, so we should not compare them directly to more specific equipment like squeezebox, etc. For them to produce moderately pleasing sound one needs a good dock station that can either have analogue outputs or, which is better, serve as digital transport further into a high quality DAC. For me a dock station option is the best one, it bypasses internal dac of an idevice and also provides power, which is essential since no one wants to interrupt playback to charge battery.
ah ok so your saying buy a dock that will bypass the ipods dac and get a dedicated dac? iv seen a pretty well respected diy usb dac from canada on ebay i may give that a shot just to get into this whole dac thing to see if it makes any difference. i want to start playing music from my laptop potentially so want to investigate this route.
as for the vertere cable thats interesting as id be skeptical as to how the cable could make such a difference, i got a fairly decen belkin lead atm.
yes most of the dacs allow enjoy music from laptop .I play like that via usb.Sounds great 
Sound quality will depend on dac .I am using bryston dac bda-1
What amp have you got? A lot will depend on what inputs you have on your hi-fi.