The digital components are less critical as long as they can reliably deliver the "bit perfect" signal - without drop outs, timing errors and too much power supply noise. How close the "bit perfect" is to "perfect" will indeed depend on the quality of your system, in particular the analog part of the audio chain starting from the DAC. This term just signifies that the digital signal travels unaltered from the source to the DAC's input, meaning no equalization or other DSP, no upsampling, no mixing with other digital signals etc.What happens inside the DAC is out of scope for the "bit perfect" term - the DAC does whatever it needs to do to convert the signal. I think your expectations or understanding of "bit perfect" goes a bit too far. I'd also like to be able to use it for less critical but convenient listening duties (such as Spotify or when I quickly want to play something via Bluetooth). I'm now left wondering, is it the norm for dedicated audio gear to playback bit perfect audio or is this something reserved for high end equipment? Basically I want something that will playback my audio files and CDs as they should natively be played without having to worry about noise. I've also looked at various compact hi-fi systems that also do not offer up this information. While the manual (for the Yamaha RX-V581 in this case as it is a prospective buy) says what file formats are compatible, it doesn't have any information on how this is handled and whether it upsamples the audio. There are also networking features available (which I haven't looked at the ins and outs of yet). As I may be looking at upgrading my current AV receiver, I was wondering if I could kill two birds with one stone, as many of the receivers support FLAC via USB nowadays. This has lead to a new line of research on my part and one where the answers don't seem to be out in the open. As it seems a PC is not ideal by default, I've been wondering if it might be better to buy a device specifically intended for audio rather than try and address the problems of using a PC as a source. 4) You must also ensure you have software that is compatible with the appropriate drivers (ASIO etc) to ensure the audio is output correctly. 2) Ensuring your sound card/DAC will fulfil your requirements (as my requirements have changed, I'm currently investigating options) 3) USB can reportedly be noisey itself and there are various devices designed to minimise this noise. I realise that with PC audio, there are hurdles to overcome such as 1) Getting your sound card/DAC out of the case and away from that noisey environment (which was one of the first things I did when I began my quest for better audio by using an external USB sound card). When it comes to PC audio, the information is not too difficult to find. As I raise more questions, the questions become more difficult to find answers to. I'm currently investigating different options, but the more I dig, the more questions I raise. I've now arrived at a point where I want to hear for myself what music "should" sound like to the extent of wanting to try and ensure bit perfect audio. Over the past three years I have been steadily getting more and more into audio.
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