I know the onboard DAC is shite -- as it 'appens I have been using an external USB dac on the Mac Mini downstairs (the analogue output got fried during a power surge :-) for some time and last week I ordered an insanely good value DAC from China for the MBP. They are all USB, lunatic build quality, mega sampling rates... it's insane... our battery prototype was leading edge... but now it's old hat! That and the fact ours didn't re-clock so it relied on the timing of the USB system (AIUI), now they re-clock with PICOsecond accuracy... it's just boggling.

Thanks :)

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