I was looking at this "review" of the NAD M51 vs DAC2. He claims that the DAC2 sounds awful via laptop/usb but sounds great via squeezebox touch/usb. Is this even possible or is this guy just an idiot? I am hoping he is an idiot since I was planning to use the DAC2 via mbp/usb.
http://scamperingseattle.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/dac2-nadm51/
"USB straight out of my laptop (no matter which port) sounds like dreck with the Benchmark. Congested, 2-dimensional, sibilant, shrill; a smorgasboard of grating digititus.
SPDIF out of the Squeezebox Touch (with Triode’s EDO plugin) into the DAC2 sounds great, completely ameliorating (2) – it sounds like a different DAC.
Asynchronous USB into the DAC2 from the Touch also works using EDO! It sounds as good as if not better than SPDIF."