Best Quality Sound and "Inexpensive" ($100-400) DAC with highest resolution

[sonictonic]

Best Quality Sound and "Inexpensive" ($100-400) DAC with highest resolution

Hi, I am an A&R Director and a huge FAN of music - all genres. Though I have lots of gear ( Old Marantz. and Bryston - newer Rotel) and a couple of set-ups ( Living room 5.1 Rotel ) .. my main listening is in my office..
Intel imac
Rotel integrated
Nht sub amp w/sub
Near-field- NHT Classic 3
Room- Ohm Walsh 3x0

I have thousands of CDs..and slowly converting my favorites to WAV files and using itunes for listening. ( at the very least using my m Intel iMac) My desire is to also download hi-res tracks from places like www.HDtracks.com and other labels that are providing 192/24=96/24 resolution.

Many of the well-reviewed DACs I have seen in forums here ( in this price range) seem to be limited to 44.1kHz / 16 bit, I am desiring to get the best resolution ( for my ears... unaffected sound) possible that works with my system and the intel iMac. ( I will never be using a PC)

Some I have looked at..thoughts on these or others?
Beresford TC7510 and TC7520
Valab NOS
Musical Fidelity V-Dac
Edirol UA-25
Cambride Audio DacMagic
M-Audio Transit

My interest in best sound/value for dollar.
Your ideas and input is appreciated. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice.

ST

[blackraven]

I would search www.audiogon.com and look for a used Benchmark, Monarchy, or PS Audio digilink III.

Or spend a few extra dollars and buy this PS Audio Digilink from here-

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PSDL3

This is a great little DAC with a usb interface.

[noddin0ff]

I have this dac in my main system and am quite please with it

http://www.pacificvalve.us/MusilandMD10.html

Just FYI, the 44.1kHz / 16 bit resolution is typically a limitation of USB. USB wasn't designed to support higher resolution; I don't know of any computer that will output higher resolution audio along USB. Thus, most USB dacs don't support higher resolutions. Some will upconvert 44.1kHz / 16 bit signal but that adds to the price of the budget dac.

If you use the mini-optical output on the iMac, you can support the higher resolution. All you need is this $2 part to adapt the mini-optical to Toslink.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=180-968

There's also this older thread. Lots of the DACs are still around.
http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=22028&highlight=budget+dac

I also have a Zhaolu 2.0 DAC. The 3.0 is out. I use this with my MacBookPro and Senns 580s and enjoy it a lot. I typically use the Audio Midi Setup application to upsample iTunes to higher res, before it goes optically to the DAC.
http://www.ifiaudio.com/d3.html