New to DAC and the possibilities of 2012 technology

hi rob, id go for a beresford bushmaster, its fantastic ! also try some dali zensor 1 speakers ,i love mine, then you'd be left with £600 for a good amp and cables, a shopping trip is in order !! jim

I have tried the m-dac and its gorgeous, I want one myself, but because your budget also needs to include speakers and an amp I would suggest a more even split (about £330 for each).

For this kind of cash I can highly recommend my DAC, the Yulong D100 mkii. It has stunning performance on both the DAC and the headphone amp so has that covered. It also has most of the connections and features of the m-dac too (incl. Async USB), although not the multiple digital inputs to be fair. 

I can't help much on the amp and speaker front but there you seem to have more of an idea anyway.

Good luck

You either need amplification for passive speakers or you should get active speakers, which may be a good idea seeing as you are trying to keep it small. 

Btw even if you heard differences with cables in 2004, that may not be (won't be  ) the case with difitical cables, so at least try before you buy, or just stick to standard cables. 

To use a DAC for volume control you will need one with a 'pre' section to do so, the M-DAC is perfect for this.

After that, as BenLaw says you need either a power or mono-block amp/s and some passive speakers or powered/active speakers which have the amp module built in. Pro and cons over any of the set ups and the one you choose is the one that fits your needs.

There are also some technical issues you need to be aware of, mainly clipping with the input singal, it will degrade the sound. You will need some adjustment on the DAC and/or amp/speaker end if there is a mis-match.

thanks for all your comments so far guys

I am defo going with the Dell laptop, purchasing that later today ... maybe for now I'll just go for the M-DAC and use my Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones which I already own ... This will be a good starting base, at least I can listen to music when I make the move abroad .. can't stand hearing music from the bog standard speakers on the lappy.

I like the Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 speakers, but am also prepared to wait a while and speand maybe £400, but I cant afford more...any recommendations

Which just leaves me with the choice of Amp

I am happy to spend £500 just on the Amp itself, is there any you guys would recommend that would go well with the rest of my new set-up

Really appreciate your feedback so far.

If your total budget is therefore around £900 I would go for a used pair of AVI ADM9T, which are active speakers and include their own dac. These will be better than the BX2s by a significant margin. 

@ BenLaw

I've just been on the AVI website, and to be honest I've not heard of them, probably as at that price range I tend to drool at the pictures but not read the article coz of the costs associated with it .. However, for £1250.00 I am very trempted, as this means I can get the DAC speakers and amp in one simple package

Is there anything else I should check out

A few friends have now been talking about Epiphany Acoustics

Have you seen their range, looks very temping

I have been playing with their combined DAC/amp and separate DAC. I like them, bit on the warm side but nice and smooth, although that comment is mostly for the EHP-O2D. I also recently got the Arcam rPAC and I also really enjoy that one. 

I have a review of the EHP-O2D here: http://noblehifi.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/epiphany-acoustics-ehp-02d-review.html

I will try to write something about the rPAC soon.

update

I've decided on the following

Laptop > Standalone ObjectiveDAC (ODAC) RCA > Marantz PM6004 > > Rega RP1 > KEF Q300

I'll be purchasing a seperate cMoyBB V2.03 Headphone Amp in a few weeks.

Good stuff. Let us know how you get on.