Oh yes I agree an off board DAC is better. I own the Fiio E7 which I highly recommend for laptops and only costs $80.00. In fact I run a 50 foot USB cable from my laptop to my DAC and the improvement is much better than running a 50 foot 3.5mm TRS.
But the high end ones that are 24 bit 192khz that cost $1k (Cambridge Soundworks DAC magic comes to mind) I have to seriously doubt I'm going to hear it. I really only hear the DAC difference (compared to my laptop and FIIO) when I use headphones.
But the high end ones that are 24 bit 192khz that cost $1k (Cambridge Soundworks DAC magic comes to mind) I have to seriously doubt I'm going to hear it. I really only hear the DAC difference (compared to my laptop and FIIO) when I use headphones.