DAC Expectations with Airport Express

[BigA]

I want to get a DAC to bump up the sound quality for Apple Lossless music that I stream from my iMac to my two channel stereo through an Apple Airport Express. Using the internal DAC in the Airport Express, the sound of a CD ripped in Lossless to the iMac doesn't sound nearly as good as as a CD played on my system (Yamaha R-S700 Receiver, Dali Ikon Speakers, NAD 516BEE CD Player, NHT B10 Sub woofer, JVC Turntable). It would be an added bonus if the DAC would improve the sound of other streamed music from Pandora and other sources.

My question is how much improvement should I expect if I get a DAC in the $500 range (Schiit Bifrost, NAD D 1050, DAC IT, Parasound DAC, etc) versus something more costly. I would prefer to stay in the $500 range, but I would spend more if it would a significant difference. It is a pain to buy products and return them as part of the testing and evaluating process.

 

[RShackleford]

All I can offer is that I purchased an Emotiva XDA-2 (about $250) based on recs from this forum, and my sound is vastly improved.

My situation is somewhat similar to yours: I'm streaming lossless CD rips from Mac desktop to an AppleTV2. ATV has no DAC, so I was using the DAC in my Sony television (the ATV2 connects to it via HDMI, and analog RCA out from the TV goes to my 2-channel stereo (Van Alstine PAT5 preamp, MC40 power amps, Infinite Phase speakers).

The big difference between your situation and mine is that audio is resampled to 48KHz (from the native 44.1 KHz of the CDs) for streaming to ATV2, whereas the AE keeps it at 44.1KHz. Many people opine that the lack of bit-perfection makes buying a good DAC silly, while others say you can't hear it. Soon I will connect my laptop to the Emotiva using USB (thus bypassing the resampling) and see if I can hear any artifact. I'd love to hardwire the desktop to the Emotiva, but the distance is over 30ft and apparently neither USB nor optical coax is very good for that distance.