[mlai]

I encourage you to do the following experiment:

1) Find a good copy of Hotel California, and also a piece of orchestra performance in 192k/24bit flac.
2) Put one in a USB, and one in a AK120.
3) With eq flat on both device, do a back-back comparison.
4) Adjust eq on the car to try and "optimize" the sound.

We did this on 20 F10s (both CIC and NBT,hifi loudspeaker professionals= with CIC only able to play WMA lossless at 44.1/16bit), my E93M3 (HK sound), and my F06 Dirac. In blind testing by all the respective owners, every single one agreed that AK120 resulted in more clarity than the USB direct to NBT and CIC.

We had a stereo shop owner and technician join us at the blind testing as well, and he had the same conclusion.

All I can say is, start with a very high quality source, and then you can really tell that the DAC plays a very important role. However, if you are just using CD source, or ANY compressed music formats, don't bother.

PS. Louder does not mean better.....