Pretty long thread at
PETT about DAC's (and cost of).
Mr. Laub went and purchased a $25 DAC based on the Cirrus CS4398.
To distill it down to a sound byte vs his M-Audio Pro-fire 610:
The result: I could not tell a difference between the two setups. Honestly, I wanted to hear a difference. I actually tried to "listen for" any additional distortion, difference in noise floor, clarity of high frequencies, etc. If there was anything, this setup could not reveal them.
He links back to the measurements he made in thread.
Pretty interesting what one can get for pocket change. He has a $40 Ebay DAC coming that has lower distortion measurement listed.
