Amp and digital to analog converter.
Absolutely excellent sound. The NuForce gear is about $300 + I already had $500/ pr bookshelf speakers. I play Apple losses format (off CD downloads, not mp3) only. Mp3 should sound better though.
Very worth the money. There is no way in hell $800 sounded this good 10 to 15 years ago. A bigger amp should sound better than the NuForce but generally speaking this is very, very, good. You tube stuff sounds better, too.
http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconudac/index.php
http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconamp/index.php
They have some more proprietary stuff that has some advantages, but since I already had some speakers I went with this setup.
The new DAC they sell handles really high sampled music (higher than CD) but it's not commonly available, for now. Basically it's just for uppity jazz and classical. You down load it off of special websites.
NuForce: Gear for computer audio
Moderator: Dux
NuForce: Gear for computer audio
How many Keynesians does it take to replace a lightbulb? 2, 1 to screw it in and another to have broken it in the 1st place.